The next day, Da Kui ordered people to prepare carriages and horses and prepare to return to Lin'an. When Lian'er got on the carriage, she saw Gou Sheng and others carrying Mr. Ma out of the house. Lian'er knew that Da Kui would not embarrass him again, so she entered
After entering the carriage, he put down the curtain and did not show up again. Mr. Ma watched Lian'er get into the carriage with dull eyes. At this time, he was completely disappointed. He didn't know where Lian'er was being taken this time. From now on, he would be anywhere in the world.
Missing each other but not seeing each other.
When everyone was ready, Dakui led more than 20 of his subordinates to get on their horses and follow the carriage. Dakui looked at Mr. Ma from his horse and said, "If you want to see Lian'er again, you might as well come with us."
Mr. Ma remained silent, still standing in front of the door without any emotion. Dakui chuckled and said, "If you are willing to follow me, I can let you be the driver. In this way, you can get along with Lian'er day and night. How about it?"
Mr. Ma sat down on the steps in front of Pan's house, holding his head in his hands and just lowering his head without saying anything. Dakui sighed, and then said in a long voice: "Let's go." Everyone agreed in unison, and the team immediately walked all the way to the north of the city.
After the carriage had gone a long way, Lian'er quietly lifted the curtain and looked back, but did not see Mr. Ma following him. These days, Lian'er has been thinking about Mr. Ma day and night, and her face is already a little haggard. At this time,
Lian'er couldn't help but feel disappointed when she didn't see Young Master Ma following her.
Seeing Lian'er's movements, Da Kui smiled lightly and pretended not to know what to do. He was about to leave the city after walking one more street, but a shout came from far behind the team: "Wait for me, I'm going to leave the city."
Let’s go with you.”
Da Kui turned around and saw Mr. Ma striding towards him. By the time he got to the car, he was panting and speechless. Da Kui smiled and said, "Your surname is Ma, so you are worthy of your name when you come to drive the carriage. Go and drive the carriage!"
It took Master Ma a long time to catch his breath, and he walked to the side of the car with a red face. The person in charge of driving was Shi Shi. Shi Shi quietly handed the whip to Mr. Ma. Mr. Ma had been studying since he was a child, but he couldn't catch up.
Passing a carriage? At this time, I don’t know how to drive the carriage.
Dakui said with a smile: "Teach him Shitou, so that he can learn more skills. If he can't get ahead in studying, he can at least make a living by driving a carriage." Shitou agreed and set off to the other side of the carriage to face Mr. Ma.
Said: "Get in the car."
Mr. Ma obeyed and imitated Shi Shi and sat on the edge of the car. Shi Shi smiled and took the riding whip from Mr. Ma's hand. He chuckled and said, "Scholar, please learn a little bit." As he said this, he shook his riding whip and greeted the air.
There was a crisp 'snap' sound. Then the horse pulled the cart and shouted loudly at the sound of the stone: "Drive." It obeyed and moved forward quickly.
Due to the sudden incident, Mr. Ma almost fell off the car. This actually caused everyone to laugh. Dakui was the first to knock the horse's belly and go ahead, and the rest of the people rode their horses to follow.
Da Kui controlled the speed of the horse and kept pace with the driver. Looking at Mr. Ma's embarrassment, he couldn't help but ask: "Back in Xiangquanfang, I saw you well-dressed and accompanied by a bookboy. Why are you so depressed now?"
Mr. Ma faltered but could not answer. Dakui couldn't help but said coldly: "Now that you are under my command, you must answer truthfully when I ask questions, otherwise you will be disobeying my orders."
Mr. Ma held it in for a long time before whispering: "My clothes are rented, and the book boy is pretending to be a servant from Xiangquanfang." As soon as he said this, Dakui couldn't help laughing again. Weird things happen every year in the world, but this year is special.
Dakui, who rented many clothes, had learned from him, but this servant boy actually borrowed them too. It was really strange.
Seeing the city gate in sight, Da Kui couldn't help feeling helpless. Although Xiangquanfang was Hu Weiyong's property, he made money by doing business after all. Even though this theory was unreasonable, it was not within Da Kui's scope of authority. Especially that
Hu Weiyong was deeply trusted by the King of Wu, and he was an official in the same dynasty. It would not look good if he fell out with him.
The only solution for now is to rush back to Lin'an as soon as possible, collect all the reports one by one, and then submit them to King Wu. After all, Jiangnan is so big and there are so many officials involved in the case, this is beyond Da Kui's ability. As the saying goes: the law cannot be punished.
Blame the public. There is also a saying: Public anger is hard to offend. According to Dakui's estimation, if the list is compiled this time, and the spies sent by Jiangbei Yuanting are added, the total number will be a terrifying number.
Dakui didn't dare to think about it. If this was really the case, he didn't know how King Wu would decide. He wouldn't kill everyone. What Dakui had in mind was that these officials would either confiscate their property or be thrown into prison. Not Dakui.
If you are greedy and evil, you should not die. You must know that God has the virtue of good life, how can King Wu act against God?
Half of the officials in the Ming Dynasty today were once local officials of Yuanting. How can they serve the world if they go too far? Liu Ji, Liu Bowen, the first adviser to King Wu, was once appointed by Yuanting as the Prime Minister of Gao'an County, Jiangxi, and later served as
Everything in the Marshal's Mansion is a matter. In this way, once the names of so many officials are reported, King Wu will not be punished if he has the benevolence to do so. But if these people are punished one by one by himself, then there is no doubt that he will
He became the target of public criticism among Jiangnan officials.
Da Kui thought about it for a moment but felt a little upset, so he simply stopped thinking about it. After returning to Lin'an, he drafted a memorial and threw this big burden to King Wu. By then, it was not Da Kui's business to worry about whether King Wu would kill or release these spies and corrupt officials.
.
Mr. Ma was very calm along the way and never talked to Lian'er in the carriage. Slowly, he learned to drive. Dakui couldn't help but secretly marveled, seeing that Mr. Ma's posture was perfect for driving a car.
There was nothing going on, so Da Kui walked beside the car and couldn't help but ask: "Mr. Ma, you have read a lot of poems and books, but you don't know what your literary talent is. Why don't you write a poem when you feel like it, so that I can see what you are capable of?"
When Mr. Ma heard about Dakui's poem examination, he couldn't help but get excited and immediately replied: "Please come up with a question."
It’s no wonder that Da Kui looked around for a long time and couldn’t find any scenery suitable for writing poems. Da Kui didn’t read much and was even less literate, so how could he use scenery as a topic? When he saw the horse pulling the cart, he couldn’t help laughing and said: "Master Ma
My surname is Ma, so I might as well write a poem based on horses."
Mr. Ma knew that Dakui was playing a trick on him, but he didn't take it seriously. After thinking for a moment, he chanted: "I don't know the pain of yellow lotus. I rode my horse thousands of miles to follow. There will be frost and flowers tonight, and there will be flowers all over the place tomorrow."
Dakui couldn't help laughing when he heard this poem. Although Dakui was not familiar with writing, he could still understand the meaning of the poem at first glance. This poem was obviously nonsense. The first two sentences were about his admiration for Lian'er.
Even if you are your own servant and drive a carriage, you have to accompany him thousands of miles away. The last two sentences mean that if you live under someone else's fence now, sooner or later the dead trees will bloom in spring.
Thinking of this, Dakui couldn't help but laugh and said: "If you are still so obsessed with beauty, let alone flowers and grass everywhere, it won't be your turn!" After Dakui said this, he laughed and galloped forward on his horse.
Xiaoxing spent the night and walked on the road for more than a month. It was already mid-June when Dakui and others arrived at the boundary of Lin'an.
The Tongzhengshi Yamen is a huge project, and compared with it, the Lin'an Fu Yamen, which is just a street away, is inferior by three points. Although the layout is similar, the scale is much larger.
When Dakui arrived in front of the Tongzhengshi Yamen, he looked at the majestic Tongzhengshi Yamen and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "How much money does this cost?" The red lacquer gate under the carved cornice gate is nearly two feet wide, with the door directly above the top.
There is just a plaque with the words "Jiangnan General Affairs Office" written in five golden characters.
At this time, there were two yamen guards in front of the door. Seeing the large number of people including Da Kui, the yamen officer on the left couldn't help but stepped forward and asked, "This is the general government yamen. Who are you?"
Although Da Kui was wearing a brocade robe, he was dressed like a gentleman from a wealthy family. He happened to not be wearing official uniform today, so when he saw the yamen officer asking, he immediately took out his badge and showed it in front of the yamen officer.
"See Sir General Secretary." The yamen officer immediately clasped his fists and saluted. Da Kui smiled and said, "Excuse me. You have been busy these days and you have come to look after the yamen. Which yamen are you from?"
The Yamen official immediately reported back: "You guys are from the Yamen of Lin'an Prefecture, and were sent by Lord Zhou to guard this place."
Dakui chuckled and said, "In that case, you can thank Lord Zhou for me when you go back."
The Yamen immediately handed him over again, and then returned to the Yamen of Lin'an Prefecture together with another Yamen.
Da Kui led everyone straight into the General Affairs Office. Gou Sheng rearranged six people on duty at the yamen gate, and then followed Da Kui into the yamen. It was already evening when everything was settled, and Da Kui no longer delayed. He immediately ordered people to go to Longping Mansion to inform him.
Master Feng and others came to Lin'an Mansion for a meeting.
On the third day, Master Feng arrived in Lin'an, and Huang Ying and two personal maids came with him. Da Kui couldn't care less about his relationship with Huang Ying's children, so he immediately placed Huang Ying in the back house. Then he went to the front house with Master Feng and others.
hall.
When everyone was seated, Dakui asked: "I wonder what news there is from various places during the period when I am not at home?"
Master Feng reported back: "Secret reports from all over the country are coming in, and they are all here." As he said this, he motioned to the attendant behind him to take out a wooden box. This wooden box was two feet long and one foot wide, and was painted with vermilion lacquer.
Besides, the lock is missing. This wooden box is more appropriately called a wooden box than a wooden box.
The secret reports sent back from spies from all over the country were packed in such a large wooden box, which shows how frequently the reports were received.
When Master Feng opened the wooden box, Da Kui couldn't help but feel dizzy. There was a box full of paper sign, each paper sign was two fingers wide. There was a box of such small paper sign. The paper sign in this box was probably
There are tens of thousands of them.
Master Feng put the wooden box on the table and then reported: "The reports here are quite complicated. They are all secret reports of corruption by officials from various places, ranging from more than 100,000 to tens of thousands taels of silver, to thousands and hundreds of taels."
Greedy ink. All the details are listed here."
Master Feng then took out a booklet from his arms and said, "This is a list that my subordinates have compiled one by one. They have classified and copied the secret reports according to the amount of embezzlement of the people involved. Please take a look at it." After saying this, he stood up and walked over and presented it with both hands.
The roster.
Dakui was shocked. He took the roster with both hands and opened it to check each one in detail. Although he had already prepared in his heart and knew that there would be many corrupt officials, this time he saw the secret report in the wooden box and looked at this thick book.