Early the next morning, a deafening burst of firecrackers suddenly sounded outside the door of an inn in the north of Lanzhou City, followed by dozens of people shouting in unison: "Congratulations, sir, on your promotion."
The innkeeper was shocked. Could it be that a certain high-ranking official was staying in the inn? When he went out, he saw dozens of officials in public uniforms holding street cleaning signs and carrying blue cloth sedans waiting outside, so he took courage.
Question: "May I ask, which master is your subordinate?"
The messenger said: "We are here to greet the new Lord Fan of the Gansu Patrol Dao on the orders of Mr. Zhou from the Ministry of Household Affairs."
The boss turned to the waiter and asked: "Is there any distinguished customer named Fan in our store?"
The waiter said: "Yesterday, a poor man named Fan came here. Others paid for the hotel and he didn't go downstairs for dinner. Could it be him?"
The boss just slapped him in the face: "What a poor man, that's a private visit from the boss incognito. If you keep talking nonsense, you may be caught and slapped. Why don't you quickly lead the officials up to pick him up?"
Fan Liangchen stayed up all night and just fell asleep in the early morning. He was woken up by firecrackers in a daze. Then the door opened and a group of people came in. The old man shouted and helped him put away the old clothes.
Take it off and put on a brand new outfit.
A plain white Sichuan brocade coat, with a new crimson round collar on the outside, a jade belt around the waist, a new black gauze hat on the head, and new official boots on the feet, with shiny black boots and snow-white soles spotless, Fan Liangchen was still in a trance.
Thinking it was a dream, he was surrounded by people and left the inn. He woke up when the sun shone and looked at the patch on his chest. It was a fourth-grade cloud and goose pattern. He fainted again. It would be fine if the official was reinstated.
Why was he suddenly promoted three levels in a row, from a seventh-grade Tisi to a fourth-grade official?
Could it be that someone came to entertain himself? No, there is no way to create such a scene. Fan Liangchen calmed down and asked: "Who sent you?"
The leading messenger said: "Come back to your lord, we were sent by Zhou Shangshu to pick you up. Now you are on the Gansu Touring Trade Road and are in charge of the northwest salt, iron, tea and horse affairs. Zhou Shangshu is waiting for you at the Yamen. Please set off.
"
This group of policemen were also acting under orders, and they couldn't ask questions clearly. Fan Liangchen simply boarded the sedan and let them carry him away.
When they arrived at the Yamen, Zhou Shangshu had been waiting for a long time. When he saw Fan Liangchen, he fell down on his knees and called him wise. Zhou Shangshu smiled while stroking his beard, helped Fan Liangchen up, and after a brief greeting, got down to business.
Zhou Ziqing is a capable man who handles affairs vigorously and informally. Logically speaking, he is a second-rank minister and does not have the power to promote a dismissed seventh-rank official to a third rank as a Taoist priest. However, as an imperial envoy, he obeys the authority in emergencies.
, for Qiang horse affairs, he can make the decision as long as it is the appointment or removal of officials in Gansu Province, and the emperor will not blame him afterwards.
After a conversation, Fan Liangchen understood how he had achieved this. It turned out that it was all due to Mr. Yuan's words. He was really loyal and resisted the pressure to force the court to re-activate him on the condition of severing the business relationship. This matter
It was very risky to implement. If it hadn't been for Mr. Zhou's wisdom, Yuan Feng might have lost both his men and his money. Not to mention that if these horses were lost, he would offend the patrol trade road, and he would never be able to hang out in the northwest in the future.
"Master Fan, the import of Qiang horses depends entirely on you. If you have any requests, feel free to ask for them. I will definitely satisfy you." Zhou Ziqing said.
When the time came to express his determination, Fan Liangchen left his seat, lifted up his robe and knelt down, saying that your Excellency would like to reshape the humble position of kindness, and you dare not do this matter of horse administration without your life.
There is no need for a heavy hammer to play the drum. Zhou Ziqing knew that Fan Liangchen had to deal with a lot of things when he took office, so he left with a few more instructions. Fan Liangchen personally escorted him out of the gate and watched Zhou Shangshu's carriage and horse go away.
He sighed a lot.
When I turned around, I saw a familiar face. When I came to the Xunshangdao Yamen yesterday to ask for an audience, didn't I bribe this disciple with twenty taels of silver? However, after taking the money, I didn't even give him any work. How could I have imagined that after just one day, I would be gone from there?
The poor man who begged for a meeting in front of the door became the owner of this big government office. The ups and downs in life are probably nothing more than this.
"Come here, drag this corrupt and perverting disciple to the eighty-year-old gang!" Fan Liangchen shouted. The disciple fell to the ground and trembled, begging for mercy. How could Fan Liangchen be willing to spare him?
, after all these ups and downs, he finally understood that grudges and grudges are the real life. If there is hatred and revenge, there is kindness. If you have the right to use it, it will become invalid after expiration.
He originally wanted to send someone to invite Yuan Feng, but then he thought it was not appropriate and he should go to see his great benefactor in person, so Fan Liangchen had people prepare carriages and horses and rush to the livestock market in the south of the city. The horse sellers usually lived in
There.
As soon as Fan Liangchen's sedan appeared, the market was abuzz. Now that Master Fan's legendary experience has spread throughout the market, who doesn't want to be part of Master Fan's happiness? However, people went straight to the Qiang settlement and ignored these merchants at all.
.
When he arrived at Yuan Feng's residence, Fan Liangchen dismissed his followers and got off the sedan alone to call the door. The servant seemed to have known that he was coming, so he opened the door and welcomed him in. He saw Yuan Feng and a group of friends sitting in the hall talking.
, Fan Liangchen took a few steps, lifted up his robe, knelt down, and said, "My benefactor, please accept my three bows."
Yuan Feng hurriedly stepped forward to help him, saying that he could not help, but he insisted on not pulling Fan Liangchen up. Master Fan, wearing a fourth-grade official uniform, kowtowed to Yuan Feng three times. When he raised his head again, tears were already streaming down his face.
"Benefactor, you are really my great benefactor. From now on, my benefactor's affairs are my affairs, and I can go through water or fire with just one sentence."
Yuan Feng said: "Master Fan used a lot of tea and horse coupons to exchange for my 300 horses. If you no longer serve as an official, who should I look after?" He pulled Fan Liangchen up.
A joke livened up the atmosphere and made it clear what Yuan Feng's intention was. Fan Liangchen stood up and said: "Thanks to Mr. Yuan's care, Fan will be in charge of the patrol business road in the future. All the regulations are not decided by the brothers alone."
After all, last time my brother had no choice but to fool you with the tea-horse coupons, but it’s different now. There is still some money left in the Xunshang Yamen."
After saying that, the two laughed loudly, sat down respectively, and briefly discussed the future import of Qiang horses. It was generally in the form of barter. The Qiang people exchanged horses, skins, cattle and sheep for bricks, tea, ironware and other items.
There is no need to discuss the quantity and price in detail for the time being. In short, I will definitely not treat Yuan Feng and the others badly.
After the matter was settled, Yuan Feng took out a letter from his arms and said: "This is a personal letter written by the magistrate of my family to Zhou Shangshu. Please forward it to Lord Fan."
"It's a small matter." Fan Liangchen took the letter and put it into his sleeve, and then said: "I have such a good rapport with Mr. Yuan, why don't we marry Jinlan. From now on, we will become brothers and have good friends for generations. Mr. Yuan, are you willing to give in?"
"Okay, that's what my brother meant." Of course Yuan Feng wanted it, so the two immediately chopped off the chicken heads and burned yellow paper, becoming sworn brothers with different surnames.
That night, Zhou Ziqing received the letter handed over by Fan Liangchen. After reading it carefully, he couldn't help but became furious. He shouted: "Bold profiteer! It's just a matter of contempt for the court's laws, but he actually dared to assassinate an official of the court. This is incredible!"
Fan Liangchen hurriedly asked why the Lord was so angry. Zhou Ziqing said: "I didn't expect that those tea and horse coupons of yours caused an uproar. As a result, there was a conflict between Luyang County and the Yuchi family in Chang'an. These unscrupulous traders were confiscated by the officials.
He actually gathered thieves to attack, and sent people to assassinate the county magistrate, and then contacted some of Wu Qingyuan's actions. It seems that someone did not want these tea-horse coupons to be used again."
Fan Liangchen said: "It is a pity that the Tea Horse Law has been abandoned. Now that some people are willing to support the Tea Horse Law, the court should follow the trend. Controlling the tea horse trade will enrich the country and strengthen the army. It will have all the benefits and no harm."
"What Mr. Fan said is absolutely true. It's just that the tea-horse method has been abandoned for many years. If we really want to revive it, we will have to spend a lot of troubles and there will be great resistance from the people. In fact, what I came to Gansu this time is
It’s just this matter. It involves too many aspects and needs to be discussed in the long term, but there are so many smugglers that we can’t handle it..."
Fan Liangchen had quite a bit of research on the tea-horse method. The two of them talked very speculatively and even stayed up all night. In the end, Zhou Ziqing simply accepted Fan Liangchen as his disciple. From then on, the two became teachers and students, and worked together to study the fight against smuggling.
In fact, everyone knows in their hearts that smuggling cannot be stopped, and only reasonable control and guidance is the best policy. The Yuchi family is quite famous in this industry. As long as this leader is subdued, it will be much easier for other small businesses to deal with it.
However, a mere Hubu Shangshu wants to take care of these things, but he is still unable to do so. The Hubu Yamen has no soldiers and horses, and the local government is not very cooperative. If he wants to do this, he can only rely on new forces. Zhou Ziqing took that
The letter said: "It is a good idea to establish an anti-smuggling team in Luyang County and use local police officers to cooperate with investigations. We should strongly encourage it."
"Teacher, I highly recommend that if all levels of government are actively anti-smuggling, and all goods that do not have export certificates from the patrol trade routes are extremely smuggled and can be seized by everyone, then how can anyone dare to smuggle them?"