Cheng Liangjue looked at Liu Ziguang without fear and sneered: "The Imperial Envoy doesn't know something. It's just that in the ninth year of the Apocalypse, the Holy Spirit decreed that all Honglu Temple, the Ministry of Rites, the Shipping Department, etc. have officials of the fifth rank or above in charge of foreign affairs.
, you can take the python to show off the magnificence of our heavenly dynasty. It’s not too late for the imperial envoy to go back and read the relevant laws before arresting people.”
Liu Ziguang frowned slightly. Cheng Liangjue didn't look like he was talking nonsense. Is there really such a law? After all, Nanchang is a grass-roots team composed mainly of soldiers and gangsters in the capital. There are not many people who are familiar with the laws of the Ming Dynasty and the various systems of the imperial court.
, some omissions are inevitable when planning.
"So what if you can take a python? Is there such a species as a white silver python in our dynasty? Besides, the ninth year of the Apocalypse was when the eunuch party was in power. This kind of chaos has never been approved by the emperor. There are countless things that can be done today.
The imperial envoy is going to put order out of chaos and straighten out the etiquette of our Ming Dynasty. Come here."
"Here!" the guards on both sides shouted in unison, with their hands on their hips.
"Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Shipping promoted Chen Zi'ang to a man who exceeded his uniform. He thought that there were indeed laws in place, so he did not pursue the case. However, the crime of privately changing the imperial attire was true. I stripped him of his robes in front of me and slapped him with twenty boards.
." After Liu Ziguang finished speaking, he took out a random sign from the sign pot on the table and threw it out.
"Sir..." Cheng Liangjue still wanted to speak, but Liu Ziguang didn't give him a chance to speak. He walked down from the throne and said, "I have to see everything with my own eyes to believe it. The day before yesterday, I was almost deceived by the old thief Cao Yin while weaving in Jiangnan.
You can't make the same mistake twice, so please ask Governor Cheng to take me to the Shipping Department to see what's going on."
"Follow your orders," Cheng Liangjue said while suppressing his anger. He glanced sideways at his brother-in-law who had been dragged down the hall. Chen Ziang had his python robe taken off, revealing his snow-white silk underwear. He was lying on the ground being beaten. A bamboo board hit his pink and tender flesh.
The butt was like a slap on Governor Cheng's heart, and every scream made his brows beat wildly.
Liu Ziguang saw this and felt happy in his heart. It seemed that the Dongchang spy ambushing in the Governor's Mansion was not lying. This brother-in-law had a higher status in Cheng Liangjue's mind than those of the concubines.
Shanghai Road naturally learned all the lessons learned from Suzhou Prefecture. On the road from the Governor's Palace to Shibosi, Liu Ziguang didn't have a single stall or hawker, and there were very few passers-by. Every ten feet or so there was a patrolman wearing a dark green shirt.
The officer of the Chengjing Street Division was standing guard. When he saw the apricot-yellow flag of the imperial envoy approaching, he knelt down and saluted, looking very serious.
When we arrived at the door of the Shibo Department, we saw a dozen businessmen with bright faces lining up in an orderly manner. The servants who handled the affairs also had smiles and were quick to work. Liu Ziguang knew that these were all arranged actors, so he didn't care about these businessmen at all.
, went straight to the place where Tiju sat in the hall. The imperial envoy sat in the hall, picked up the roster of the shipping department and looked at it carefully. Cheng Liangjue and a group of officials sat in the hall to serve tea, although there was a fragrant tea on the coffee table.
, the cigars in their hands are good for calming down, but the officials are not able to calm down at all. This imperial envoy is so out of touch with common sense, I don’t know if the illusions arranged can deceive him.
Sure enough, after looking at the roster for a while, the imperial envoy began to find fault: "Send Zhang Sixi, the official responsible for inspecting the goods and issuing official certificates."
After a while, Zhang Sixi came to see him. He was wearing the blue robe of a low-level civil servant. He was politely greeting the imperial envoy. At first glance, he was just an ordinary clerk.
Liu Ziguang did not ask him any official questions, but asked him some family matters.
"Zhang Sixi, how many people are there in your family?"
"Returning to your lord, there are a total of fifteen people in Xiaguan's family."
"Do you live in harmony?"
"Sir, in addition to the official salary, my family also has ten acres of cotton fields in Songjiang Prefecture, which can supplement the family income every year. This is all due to the emperor's grace..."
Zhang Sixi was a little surprised that the imperial envoy suddenly cared about his family life. The large amount of import and export trade data that he had memorized by rote was no longer useful. If he had known better, he wouldn't have had to memorize it so hard. He didn't sleep for several nights.
The newly married eighth concubine didn’t even have time to take good care of her.
"You are a low-ranking official, and your annual salary is no more than a hundred taels of silver. Including the income from ten acres of cotton fields, it will not exceed two hundred taels of silver. And in the river view house you built last year, it is said that there is a Nanyang
The imported beams cost one thousand taels of silver, and the entire house cost more than fifty thousand taels of silver. Where did you get this money from?" Although the imperial envoy's words were soft, every word was as sharp as a sharp knife.
In the pit of Zhang Sixi's heart, a large amount of sweat broke out on his forehead. Before he could defend himself, the Imperial Envoy's second question came out again.
"It seems that your family has more than fifteen people. I heard that you married eight concubines and gave birth to nine sons and daughters. The total number of these people is seventeen. Don't tell me that you
Your parents are not considered human beings."
Zhang Sixi's back was wet. He didn't expect the imperial envoy to know the details of his junior official so clearly. It could be seen that he was well prepared. No matter how much he explained, it would be of no use. He looked to the side for help.
The Governor-General drinks tea with his head down.
The Governor was still blowing the hot air on the tea cup and ignored Zhang Sixi's request for help. In fact, Cheng Liangjue's heart was in a state of turmoil at this moment. The South Factory was indeed well-deserved. In front of these spies, ordinary people were transparent existences. Now people were using Zhang Sixi as a breakthrough.
, if it can be proved that Zhang Sixi is corrupt, then they have reason to interrogate all the officials of the Municipal Shipping Department and find out their details. As the saying goes, "pulling out the carrots and bringing out the mud", which official of the Municipal Shipping Department cannot find a few clues, leading to
If we continue to investigate officials at all levels in Shanghai Road, sooner or later all officials in Shanghai will be implicated.
Cheng Liangjue didn't speak, his mind was running rapidly, thinking about countermeasures. A deputy from the shipping department next to him stood up and spoke to Zhang Sixi: "Master Qi Bing, Zhang Sixi has a younger brother named Zhang Wuxi.
He is a small business owner in the cotton export business. He has a good income, so it is natural for him to support his elder brother."
"Zhang Wuxi, Zhang Sixi started the cotton export business after he joined the Shipping Department. In just four or five years, he made a fortune of tens of thousands. Among the businessmen who started exporting cotton at the same time as him, it is considered good to have a fortune of ten thousand taels.
Help the elder brother, huh, I think it is the elder brother who uses his power to help the younger brother." Liu Ziguang had already obtained the evidence of Zhang Sixi's embezzlement and the specific circumstances of his family. The mention of Zhang Wuxi was clearly on the edge of a knife.
Deputy Tiju also realized that he was the one who did not open the pot and did not dare to speak any more. He wanted to retreat to the back, but Liu Ziguang did not want to let him go. He squinted at this person and said: "Your Excellency is the Deputy of the Shipping Department.
Let’s raise Mr. Hu Ming. I’ve heard for a long time that Mr. Hu is a horse fanatic. Others use sedan chairs to travel, but you like to ride horses. The big God of Cookery in the stables of Shibosi Yamen is your ride, right? I don’t think that horse is there.
You can't buy it for ten thousand silver, but don't tell me that you have a rich brother who can buy it for you."
"This..." Deputy Tiju also had the same cold sweat on his head as Zhang Sixi, and was speechless in response to the imperial envoy's question.
Liu Ziguang was very satisfied with this effect, turned to Cheng Liangjue and said: "Sir Cheng, I see that there are many problems in this shipping company. Ordinary petty officials can actually have such a huge amount of wealth. They can save a hundred yuan without food or drink just by relying on their salaries."
There aren’t that many years. Your Majesty ordered me to patrol the south of the Yangtze River. What I was looking for was those who were corrupt, perverted the law, and harmed the public and private interests. I thought everyone in the Shipping Department should be carefully scrutinized. As long as corruption and bribery are investigated and punished, we will never tolerate it. Cheng
What do you think, sir?"
"It all depends on the imperial envoy." Cheng Liangjue said with a cold face.
Shibo Division is different from Jiangnan Weaving. Although Jiangnan Weaving is independent, there are always a few clean people, and the lower-level workers are not involved, so as long as it is organized properly, it will not affect production. However, Shibo Division is organized from top to bottom.
It was already rotten. Every official and every police officer was involved in it. Those who refused to join in the corruption had been purged out long ago, so the resistance encountered during the review was considerable.
First of all, there was the collective resistance of the officials of the Municipal Shipping Department. Although this was a fifth-grade yamen, it had more personnel than an ordinary government yamen. With the more than 100 guards and three or four accountants from the household department brought by Liu Ziguang, no matter what,
The work could not be carried out, the files we were looking for could not be found, and the people we wanted to investigate could not be caught. The officials of the Shanghai Provincial Bureau of Investigation were also very uncooperative. What was even more serious was that the review work was strongly protested by the majority of import and export businessmen.
This kind of protest was not organized by Cheng Liangjue, but was organized spontaneously by the merchants. The investigation of the Shipping Department was originally a good thing, but it turned into a bad thing when it affected their livelihood. The goods from outside could not come in, and the goods inside
Unable to get out, a large amount of goods have accumulated at the station and dock, and thousands of coolies have lost their jobs. Although they were originally exploited by the Shipping Department, there is finally a set of rules in operation, and everyone can tolerate it and get over it. However, the Imperial Envoy
After such an investigation, everyone's livelihood was cut off. They had no choice but to rush outside the hotel to cause trouble, hoping to put pressure on the imperial envoy.
The soldiers sent by the Governor's Palace did not work hard and allowed the merchants to attack the gate. These people were simply petitioning peacefully. They asked for nothing else but to resume the operation of the Shipping Department as soon as possible so that their goods and funds could be turned over as quickly as possible.
When he got up, Liu Ziguang was a little panicked about this unexpected problem, but he soon had a countermeasure. This was the idea given by Hu Yimin.
The representatives of the businessmen were invited into the hotel, and they walked out after an interview with the imperial envoy for half an hour. This was a middle-aged businessman over fifty years old. His gray hair was combed meticulously. His face was flushed, as if he couldn't bear it.
He suppressed the excitement in his heart and shouted loudly as soon as he walked out of the door: "Guys, the imperial envoy has issued an order. Until the case of Shi Yi is settled, all tax items will be exempted, and goods can be loaded and unloaded without a certificate!"
The merchants could hardly believe their ears. After confirming again and again, they burst into cheers. They all knelt down facing the post and chanted the imperial envoy's great kindness for a long time.