"The envoy will have a rest in Xichuan today, and tomorrow he will set out to go up the Xi River to the Xixia. The magistrate Yu Lian hosted a banquet at the county government office. Dong Gong went with us. Jingzi, the key to the Xixia, during the banquet
You can talk freely!”
Xu Huai's schedule was very tight. Although Xichuan County was not the main destination of the trip, when passing through Xixian County, he still had to summon the county magistrate Chen Lian and other officials to understand the situation. Shi Zhen then directly invited Dong Cheng and his son to go to the county government office.
Banquet.
"Being respectful is worse than obeying orders." Dong Chengyun said.
"Dong Gong, please!" Xu Huai stood up and extended his hand to ask Dong Cheng to go first.
The house where Dong Cheng's family lived was really small, and the main room was low and low. Only Xu Wuqi, Shi Zhen, Han Gui, and Niu Er, Shi Hu, who acted as personal guards, accompanied them into the house. Others were there.
Waiting in the hospital, including Xichuan Magistrate Yu Lian and others.
At this time, Xu Huai and Dong Cheng walked out of the low hall, followed by Xu Wuqi, Shi Zhen, Han Gui and others. Yu Lian and others were slightly startled when they saw this scene.
The court will not allow Jingjing to be completely transformed into vassal towns, such as Nanyang Prefecture, Xiangyang Prefecture, Jingzhou Tongpan, various counties joining the army, and various county magistrates, county magistrates, etc.
Official positions basically remain in their original positions, and subsequent transfers and promotion examinations are also under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel.
Because someone was secretly spreading the news, officials at this level also generally knew about Xu Huai's secret edict to trap Zheng Huaizhong before and after Emperor Jianji's death, Zheng Cong and his son, and why the Jingxiang Road was delayed for nearly a year before it was finally established after Emperor Shaolong ascended the throne.
Insider.
Therefore, we also understand how embarrassing it is for them to stay in Jingxiang Road and what a dilemma they are in.
As long as Yu Lian and others had connections, they would try their best to ask for transfers out of Jingxiang Road, but at the same time they were frightened and dealt with the current assignment cautiously, for fear that if they made a slight mistake, they would be caught between the production department and the imperial court.
not human.
Of course, before Ning Ci left Nanyang Mansion, he also specially called all the officials from various counties and counties who had stayed in Nanyang to come to him and told them, as ministers of the court, to keep an eye on the movements of the chief minister and report anything that was wrong.
You should go to the table to participate.
The scene in front of me can definitely be regarded as a "turbulence" that can be written down in the secret performance.
Yu Lian has long been familiar with the old story between Cai Zheng and Jing Shengjun and Tongbai Mountain:
After Emperor Jianji ascended the throne in Xiangyang, he even told the world that the Cai Mansion sent private officials to murder the king and stirred up the bloody inside story of banditry in Tongbai Mountain.
With the unremitting anger of the people in Chushan, the officers and soldiers regained their footing, and the Cai Mansion's conspiracy was shattered. Dong Cheng, as a member of the Cai family, went to Tangzhou. One of his functions was to help the Cai Mansion wrap up the story and cover up the many shady stories of the Tongbai Mountain banditry.
.
After Emperor Jianji ascended the throne in Xiangyang, Dong Cheng was demoted to civilian status.
This time, Xu Huai inspected the military affairs of Jingzi and other villages, and went to Xixia via Xichuan. On the way, he suddenly asked to meet Dong Cheng, who had moved to Xichuan. Yu Lian and other Xichuan County officials thought that Xu Huai, who was in a high position at this time, wanted to see Dong Chengxin.
Let’s settle old grudges together.
However, when they saw Xu Huai and Dong Cheng walking out of the narrow and low house with bright faces and going to the county government office to have a drink and talk together, Yu Lian and others were slightly startled:
What does it mean?
Xu Huai is not looking for Dong Cheng to settle old grudges, but to recruit him under his command?
Yu Lian was also stunned for a moment, then he cheered up and led the way to the county government office.
Han Gui fell behind and called out to Liu Wugong, who was still in a daze: "In the future, we need to arrange more manpower for Mr. Dong. Don't let others disturb Mr. Dong's peace..."
"Is your Majesty trying to recruit Mr. Dong to do something?" Liu Wugong asked in a low voice.
"Master Dong wants to join the system as an official." Han Gui said with a smile.
In his early years, Dong Cheng served Cai Zheng as his tutor, and came to Tangzhou under Cai Zheng's arrangement. This is true. However, Dong Cheng was an upright and qualified Jinshi, and he came to know Tangzhou as a minister of Chongwen Pavilion. I still want to
He has done something good and has no intention of getting involved in the bloody conspiracy launched by Cai Mansion.
After Dong Cheng arrived in Tangzhou, he tried his best to end the banditry in Tongbai Mountain as quickly as possible. Even though this was the order of Cai Qing, Dong Cheng devoted himself to governing the place afterwards.
, has no intention of making any small moves to suppress the people in Tongbai Mountain - Xu Wuqi was very clear about this when he pretended to join Dong Cheng to serve.
From this point of view, there is no deep hatred between Dong Cheng and Chu Shan.
Xu Huai wanted to recruit Dong Cheng. Dong Cheng was rich in knowledge and had served mostly in local affairs since he became an official. More importantly, Xu Huai wanted to buy Dong Cheng's horse bones with thousands of gold.
Because the New Deal vigorously cleaned up and deprived privately owned fields in various places, and at the same time vigorously promoted rent reduction and tenancy restrictions, it seriously suppressed the interests of the rural gentry, causing the rural gentry to regard Chushan as an enemy bandit. However, it is undeniable that there are also some members of the gentry group.
Enlightened people also realize that the danger of national subjugation and annihilation is difficult to save without all their efforts. It is undeniable that there are people among the gentry who have righteousness and do not care about personal gains and losses.
Although in the early days of Dai Viet, Dai Viet inherited the system of the previous dynasty and promulgated a "Dai Viet Law", the text was simple and could not cover the complicated court and local affairs.
It consists of a series of laws and decrees, which are extremely complicated.
This makes the vast majority of local officials have to rely on the assistance of civil servants such as the official office who have been addicted to official affairs for half their lives, or even hereditary official positions, and are familiar with the inheritance of various laws and decrees, and the clerk's office, in order to better handle the affairs of various ministries and localities.
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This also determines the irreplaceable role of subordinate officials in local governance.
When setting up the Beijing-Xiangzhi Department, Xu Huai agreed with the imperial court that all major state and county official positions would be appointed and promoted by the central government, but this did not involve state and county secretary offices, economic planners and other officials.
The ultimate goal of establishing the Official Selection Department is to control the official positions of prefectures and counties.
Whether it is hoping to better control the local area, improve the level of local governance, or further improve the level of military officers, generals and craftsmen, the Selection Department needs to screen as many local people as possible and recruit more young people with a specific cultural level.
However, the relationship between Zhisi and the rural gentry group was quite bad, which made it difficult for some scholars to take the first step to join Zhisi even if they had great intentions and did not care about personal gains and losses.
One of the intentions of recruiting Dong Cheng was to open a gap for this matter.
Regardless of Dong Cheng's past status or the production company's desire to make the company bigger, this time only Dong Cheng's son Dong Yi will be recruited as an official in the production department. It will take some time for Xu Huai to formally recommend Dong Cheng to take up the post.
buffer.
However, in addition to the local gentry's hatred of Zhisi, the enemy also had scouts and spies infiltrating into the army. The work of guarding Dong Cheng and his family must now be taken seriously.
Han Gui and Liu Wugong stayed behind to handle some matters, and Xu Huai invited Dong Cheng to go to the post house where they were staying today. As many generals and guards left, the courtyard suddenly became empty.
Dong Cheng and his son Dong Yi went out without explaining anything. Dong's wife still didn't know what happened. She and her two daughters hid in the wing in panic and did not dare to come out to ask Han Gui and Liu Wugong who were standing in the yard.
"..."
The guard who was staying in the alleyway grabbed a middle-aged man like a chicken and came over and asked Liu Wugong,
"This man is sneaking around in the yard next door and looking over here. Can Lieutenant Liu recognize him?"
"..." Liu Wugong has only been in Xichuan for half a month. Apart from the officials of the county government and county Weisi, and government servants, he really doesn't recognize many people in the county.
Liu Wugong took a look at the man's shabby clothes, dark face, and short stature. In short, he was very unattractive. After being caught by the guards, he didn't see many lies, but his eyes flickered and looked around in the yard. He didn't look like he was just watching the excitement.
Neighbors must first arrest the person and imprison him in the county jail before interrogating him.
At this time, Dong's wife came out in panic and said: "Chen Songze is my elder brother. He must be concerned about your coming. He has no evil intentions. Please show mercy to the two gentlemen..."
He was arrested by the guards of the production department. The county captain, yamen servants and subordinate officials who were familiar with all kinds of people in the county were not qualified to approach the courtyard.
Only then did Liu Wugong realize that a big mistake had been made, and he quickly asked someone to untie Chen Songze and said:
"It turns out to be Chen Songze and Chen Langjun. How offending!"
Only then did Han Gui look at Chen Songze seriously.
He knew that Chen Songze served as an official in the Xichuan County Government in his early years and was a well-rounded figure. However, after Dong Cheng was demoted from his post to the people, Chen Songze was implicated and expelled from the county government.
He was able to escape only after losing his fortune.
In addition to Chen Songze being Dong Cheng's brother-in-law, the production department had transferred all the files from prefectures and counties involving illegal salt, banditry, and land disputes during this period, and found that Chen Songze was indeed involved in several old cases of illegal salt trafficking.
It is not someone in Xichuan County who deliberately framed and framed the case.
Han Gui saw Chen Songze for the first time, he raised his hands and said:
"The envoy and Mr. Dong are old friends. This time, Dong Yi was specially appointed as an official. He has heard of Mr. Chen Songze for a long time. I am going to send someone to invite Mr. Chen Songze to a banquet..."
