Promotion Letter for the Chief Executive

The official in contact with this Zhizhou was named Li Jia, and he served as the inspector of Jiangnan Road.

According to the procuratorial envoy, he is in charge of all criminal proceedings, and also assesses officials and supervisory officials.He is a subordinate official of the governor of Jiangnan Road, with great power and heavy power.Such a person actually has correspondence with Yuanzhou Zhizhou, so it is not difficult to know why the officials in Jiangnan are so corrupt.Because it's rotten from the root.

——The inspectors themselves are all in the same boat, so how can they be sober?

As we all know, Jiangnan is rich and prosperous, and officials here have always been the hardest to find.Without a little background, it is impossible to be sent here.What's more, it is still such an important position as an inspector.And Li Jia is less than 40 years old this year, and he was able to sit in this position, naturally because there are people in the court.

And Li Jia's backer in the court was naturally his mentor and supporter, Prime Minister Xu You.

After Gu Wenheng got this letter, he quickly connected everything together, and finally understood who Zhao Can was going to deal with.

But not to mention that it is impossible for him to disobey the emperor's will, and since the emperor has such a heart, it is impossible for Xu You to escape.Just talking about Gu Wenheng himself, he really doesn't like this behavior of greedy for food and money to save the lives of the victims.

Because Zhao Can's permission was obtained before leaving the capital, even if he went to do it, and there were enough people with him, so in order to avoid leakage of information during the process of passing back and forth, and let the other party be prepared, Gu Wenheng ignored his illness, Immediately took people to Chongzhou where the governor's yamen was located, showed the imperial decree, and took down Li Jia, the procurator.

When the matter has reached this step, it is natural that the news cannot be hidden. This matter spread quickly and caused an uproar.

In terms of official position alone, the inspector is a third-rank official who guards one side and holds real power.And what about Gu Wenheng?Before leaving Beijing, he was just a sixth-rank imperial court waiting for an imperial edict.Even with the imperial decree in hand, it stands to reason that this kind of matter should be reported to the emperor, and it is more appropriate for the capital to issue it.

Therefore, Gu Wenheng's approach, in the eyes of others, is too reckless and frivolous.

The most important thing for people in the officialdom is face, so rules are very important, and those who don't follow the rules will inevitably be tolerated by this group.Thinking about how hard it is for you to climb up to the second and third ranks, who would be happy if a random junior official of the sixth or seventh rank can overthrow you from your position?

This is different from Yushitai.Because the censor only has the power to report, it is entirely up to the emperor to decide whether to do it or not.No matter what the result is, the rules are not messed up.And what Gu Wenheng is doing now is breaking the established rules, making it unbearable.

Therefore, many people in the Jiangnan officialdom inevitably felt "sorrowful for the death of the rabbit and the fox", and wrote a letter accusing Gu Wenheng of inappropriate behavior.

These memorials were naturally kept by Zhao Can.

What Gu Wenheng did was acquiesced by him, and even promoted by him.On the one hand, this will allow Gu Wenheng to establish his prestige and prepare for future work.Secondly, it can be regarded as Gu Wenheng's attitude: the more people he offends, the more isolated he will be in the court, and the only one he can rely on is the emperor, so he can only be a direct and lonely minister for life.

Only in this way, Zhao Can will rest assured to entrust some matters to him.

Gu Wenheng fully understood this point, so he turned a deaf ear to the rumors outside.After arresting the people, he directly returned to the capital with the people and the evidence.His current position is only to inspect the censor, and he does not have the power to interrogate, so after returning to the capital, the criminals and evidence will be handed over to Dali Temple and the Ministry of Punishment for review.

This matter involved many officials, and the nature was very serious. It was impossible for the emperor to let only one department review it, so as to avoid any problems.

Under Zhao Can's high pressure, the interrogation of this matter proceeded very quickly, and within a few days, the context was completely clarified.These officials all work in the same place, so they naturally have many connections with each other.And the person who provided them with protection and cover was none other than Li Jia, the Jiangnan inspector.

However, in fact, everyone knows that the real umbrella is not Li Jia, but Prime Minister Xu You.

But even if this is the consensus of everyone, it is of no use.Because if there is no evidence, it is impossible to just take down the important minister of the country.Especially since he is still an old minister left by the emperor to Zhao Can, especially since the emperor has just passed away less than a year ago, and Zhao Can has not even had time to change his year name, if he is to deal with Xu You rashly at this time, it is very likely that people will think that he is not filial .

After all, "if the father dies, he will not change his ways for three years" is the filial piety generally recognized in this era.

However, the bad thing was that one of the officials didn't know whether he was too nervous or too arrogant, so he called Xu You's name out of nowhere.In this way, even if there is no evidence, Xu You can't get away with it if there are scholars and material opinions.

At this time, in order to avoid suspicion, Xu You was naturally unable to deal with political affairs for the time being, so he could only report illness and stay at home to avoid suspicion.He was not able to return to his position until the case was concluded and it was determined that there was no contact with him at all.

Of course, if that was the case, then in order to show that the emperor had wronged him, Xu You would have to issue several decrees before he would "reluctantly" agree to come back.

However, things did not go in the direction Xu You expected.As time went by, under strong pressure, many people admitted that it was him who supported them.Otherwise, just a procurator, just an official of the governor of Jiangnan, how could it be possible to cover the sky with one hand?

You must know that under the governor of the general military administration, there are also the chief envoy in charge of political affairs, the inspector in charge of supervision, and the garrison general in charge of the army. Only in this way can the political clarity of a place be guaranteed.

And Li Jia is just an inspector. When he is protecting these corrupt officials, what are the other people in the governor's office doing?Why didn't they find out about it?Or was it discovered but there was no movement?Why didn't they move? Who gave them pressure, or was there something else hidden in it?

With such a conjecture, there is naturally only one conclusion.That is, there are more powerful people pressing on them, making it difficult for them to reach out and take care of this matter.And this person obviously couldn't be Li Jia.

By this time, as a disciple, Li Jia's correspondence with Xu You was finally discovered.Although this matter was not mentioned in the letter, it was mentioned in the letter that during the period, Li Jia did indeed send many valuable gifts to Xu You's family with various kinds of eyesight.

Birthday gifts, congratulatory gifts for the four o'clock and eighth festivals, and the birthdays of Xu You's family... What white jade Guanyin, South Sea pearls, corals, grand master chairs made of rosewood, and many precious spices, medicinal materials, etc... There are so many varieties and dazzling arrays. , the amount spent on these things is definitely not small.

Under such circumstances, who would believe that Xu You had nothing to do with this matter and didn't know anything about it?

But even so, with Xu You's status, this matter is at best a loss to his reputation, and it can't really do anything to him.If he asked to resign from office now, Zhao Can would have to give him a lot of titles and rewards, so it would not be considered embarrassing for these old people.If he is unwilling to leave, Zhao Can has nothing to do, the most he can do is stay far away.

This is also the main reason why they have been holding back and not taking action directly. There is only one chance for this kind of thing. After he is alerted, he will definitely fill in all the loopholes, and there will be no such time when they are caught by them .So to deal with him, you can only completely defeat him once, and you must not leave any leeway.

So when the case was almost settled and nothing new could be found, a large-scale demonstration suddenly broke out in Jiangnan.A large number of people, probably thousands of people, who did not know where they came from, ran to the gate of the governor's office in the south of the Yangtze River to sit quietly.

Early in the morning, when the governor's yamen opened the door, they saw a crowd of people outside. They thought that something had happened, so they hurriedly asked the governor to come out and preside over it.It turned out that these people seemed to be organized. Although there were a large number of people, they were not excited or flustered. They sent several representatives to negotiate with the governor.

They came to the sit-in this time to protest Jiangnan's current sericulture policy.

Since the introduction of the so-called mulberry fishponds in the Jiangnan area, more silkworms have been raised, but the price of woven silk has dropped. As the quantity increases, the purchase price will naturally decrease, which is also a matter of course.What's more, it's nothing more than a good year, and all kinds of food can be bought, so it doesn't feel inconvenient.But now after the disaster, everyone discovered that not only did they have no food at home, but even the government didn't have any!

Why?Because the promotion of mulberry fish ponds on Jiangnan Road has been so effective in the past few years, many people have dug their fertile land into fish ponds.With less land and less food production, the tax and food received will naturally be much less.

People don't think about it because they see other people's family making money with envy, so they follow suit, which leads to the current result.Anyway, isn't your government shouldering the responsibility of educating the people?At the beginning, this thing was agreed by the government, and with strong support, we will all get it.Now that there is no food to be found, the government will naturally be responsible.

But now, grain stores in the south of the Yangtze River are no longer able to buy grain.

People who have no food to eat will come here to sit quietly, hoping that the government will solve this problem.

Forget about the victims, they can get some food from the court, which is enough for a temporary living.It is difficult for those people who have not been affected by the disaster, but have money in their hands, but cannot buy food to eat.When something like this happens, who can they go to?

The governor of Jiangnan is not a fool. After hearing the news, he immediately realized that Xu You was going to die.

You must know that the mulberry fish pond was implemented under his auspices.In the first few years, it was true that more taxes were paid to the imperial court, so it has always been praised by people.

But the country is based on the people, and the people depend on food. The court has repeatedly emphasized the need to maintain arable land and not allow the arable land to be used for other purposes, just to maintain food production.What's more, Jiangnan is still the granary of the world, and the reduction in grain production will have a greater and more terrible impact than other places!

So the governor of Jiangnan didn't dare to delay, and immediately wrote the matter as a memorial and reported it to the court.At the same time, the granary of the governor's yamen was opened, and this part of the grain was sold to the common people for the time being, so that these people gradually dispersed.

When the news spread to the capital, it naturally aroused many discussions.

Many people have heard of the name of "Mulberry Fish Pond". The people in the capital also envied Jiangnan, where the water network is dense and the mulberry trees grow the best. Only this kind of business model can be successful, and it is not feasible to put it elsewhere. .

But now they know that the hidden dangers of this approach are so great.

As for the court, this incident did not cause much reaction. ——It's not that the officials are indifferent to this, they just dare not show their attitude.By this time, everyone knew that Xu You's official career might have come to an end.

And in the end, he couldn't help but fail to be able to become an official, and I'm afraid he might lose his reputation at the end of the year and ruin his reputation.

You know, Xu You's hometown is in the south of the Yangtze River, and when he gets old in the future, he will still have to go back to his hometown to take care of himself!If his reputation in Jiangnan is ruined right now, one can imagine what kind of situation he will face in the future.

In the past, Xu You didn't say that he was in power, but he also stood in the court for decades, which is commendable.Who would have thought that there would be such a day?When the courtiers mentioned this matter, they gloated and lamented at the same time, feeling a little uncomfortable in their hearts.

Under such a delicate state of mind, they naturally would not express their attitude towards this matter.

In fact, this problem was also discovered during the previous interrogation process.Many officials kept complaining, saying that they had never been greedy for the food in the Changping warehouse, because there was no food in the Changping warehouse!

Everyone thought they were just trying to quibble before, but now it seems that it is very likely that they are really just telling the truth.

And who is responsible for this matter?

Tiangan Palace, Primordial Palace.Zhao Can and Pingan are reading the report sent by Jiangnan.

"Your master's ability to incite people's hearts is not small." Zhao Can commented.

Pingan said, "What's this called? Not everyone in Jiangnan is an idiot. If those aristocratic families hadn't seen your thoughts clearly and cooperated with them, how could this matter be so easy?"

Yes, the sit-in of the common people was indeed the result of the organization of Xu Wenmei and several aristocratic families.

This matter has to be revealed by someone, so the court can deal with it.So after Gu Wenheng went to Jiangnan, Ping An also wrote a letter to Xu Wenmei, asking him to try to facilitate this matter.It's just that he didn't expect that Xu Wenmei finally came up with such a method.

This is really putting Xu You on the fire, leaving him no chance of survival.

However, he likes it.

"Look at this." Zhao Can handed a memorial to Ping An.There was a relaxed smile on his face. Obviously, the content in the notebook put him in a good mood.

Ping An took it over and opened it, only to find that it was Xu You's apology note.

Counting it, Xu You should be from Zhao Can's grandpa's generation, so he is naturally not young now.At this age in life, but this kind of thing happened, I don't know if he has regretted that he did too many immoral things when he was young.Or do you regret not retiring two years earlier when the late emperor was still alive?

Ping'an closed the memorial, "Actually, he should be good enough to live at this age, right?" It's just that Xu You loves face, and I'm afraid he won't agree with Ping'an's statement.

Zhao Can looked at Ping An and asked him, "How do you feel now?"

Speaking of which, Xu You is still considered Ping An's "grandpa".It's just that Ping An is not the original body, and he is so indifferent to this so-called kinship that he often forgets it.

But even so, Zhao Can was still a little worried, afraid that Ping An was only pretending to be open-minded on the surface, but in fact he still cared about this matter in his heart.After all, this is human nature.

Pingan understood what Zhao Can meant.He looked down at the memorial in his hand, and said with a smile, "The feeling is that, fortunately, he lived long enough to wait until this day." He is not the kind of character who can deceive himself into thinking that revenge has been avenged after he has killed his enemy.For Ping An, the longer Xu You lives, the better, because his "good life" has just begun now!

The memorial of pleading guilty means that Xu You has admitted his mistake, and in this case, Zhao Can will naturally punish him.

Zhao Can did not discuss this with Pingan.In other words, he originally planned to discuss it with Ping An, but Ping An said that he could decide on his own.It seemed that he wanted to use this non-interfering attitude to express his disregard for this person.

So Zhao Can thought it over and over, and finally decided to demote Xu You to Jiangnan and take up a idle position.Waiting for a few years to take office directly can be regarded as special care for veterans.

It is said to be demoted, but most of the ministers took the same path when they got old.Of course there will be gaps, but this result can be regarded as good.Anyone else would be happy to be able to return to their hometown and take up a job when they are old.

It's just that looking at the before and after of this matter, we can know that Zhao Can's intention is not good at all, it is clearly intentional.

It is indeed a good idea to let Xu You, who is notorious, go back to Jiangnan to "pay for his sins".

It is said that when Xu You received the imperial decree at home, he was so angry that he dropped the cup on the floor.The news reported by the people from the Imperial City Division was written very clearly and vividly, as if the scene was right in front of our eyes.After Zhao Can got the news, he specially rewarded Xu You with a set of tea sets.

Ping An is now writing a letter to Zhong Ping.

The last time we met was when Ping An was in Hebei.At that time, Ping An secretly wanted to sneak into the Changhe tribe to find out information, and Zhong Ping also went with him to protect his safety.During this journey, the relationship between the two people has rapidly drawn closer, and now Ping An's uncle is very happy.

But now, Xu You's matter has been settled, he naturally wants to write a letter to inform Zhong Ping that the revenge he has been thinking about for so many years has finally been avenged.

In fact, there are still many questions in Ping An's mind.

For example, how did he enter the palace back then? Was it really a coincidence that the people sent by Xu You left him alone and then sent him to Jiang Kuaidao?And does Xu You know that he is the child from back then?After all, they have met several times over the years.

Or, in Xu You's heart, do you have any regrets for the things you did back then?Are you haunted by nightmares when you sleep at night?

But these thoughts kept coming and going in his mind, and finally subsided slowly.

In fact, knowing the answers to these questions now is not very helpful and useful for things.And Ping An hopes that he will completely forget about this person and this matter. If so, what does it matter if he knows?

Anyway... starting from today, this karma is finally over.

On the day Xu You left the capital, it started to rain suddenly.

In fact, after the beginning of summer, not to mention the severe drought in the northwest, and the rain in the Gyeonggi area is also very little. This year's harvest is definitely not as good as in the past few years.And it finally rained on this day. In addition to nourishing the crops in the field, the hot weather finally dissipated the heat and became cooler.

For this reason, the people in the capital were obviously very happy, and not many people noticed that on this day, an old minister who had turned his hands into clouds and rain in the court hall staggered away.

After this incident passed, it was quickly forgotten by Ping An and Zhao Can.Because in the southeast of Luozhou, they finally realized through this series of events that if the situation continues like this, other places in Dachu will not have enough food, and they will not be able to buy any food in the southeast!

The development of Southeast Road has been very good in recent years.

As Ping An said, the methods he proposed are all feasible, and the profits are far more substantial than growing food crops.So initially they didn't notice anything was wrong.It wasn't until recently that food prices were getting higher and higher, and this major case in the south of the Yangtze River was discovered, which made people in the southeast feel a sense of crisis.

They sent people to the capital and wanted the imperial court to allocate some food to them. After all, although there was no severe drought in the southeast, they couldn't buy food now.

If it is another place, the local officials can write a memorial and submit it.However, Southeast has always been vaguely self-governing, and is unwilling to pay attention to many government orders at all. At this time, it is impossible to let the court provide food without showing weakness and bleeding.

It was precisely because he was aware of this point that King Qi specially sent someone over.

After Zhao Can heard about this, he only gave two words, "No see."

Anyway, he is very busy now, let Qi Wang's people wait for a while.Only when they are flustered will they come up with conditions that the court is satisfied with.