Wu Wei and Shuai Hui exited, leaving only Wang Xian and Sima Qiu inside.
"Good nephew, what's the plan?" At Sima Qiu's age, it is appropriate to call Wang Xian a good nephew, but when did the two of them become so close?
"The villain is now in trouble and has no time to take care of himself." Wang Xian stood up and poured tea for Sima Qiu: "I still want to ask for help from my husband."
Sima Qiu knew that this guy was used to climbing along the pole, so he took the tea cup and said: "Don't worry about this, you are becoming more and more important in the eyes of the great master. As long as you do your job sincerely, the great master will protect you.
"
Wang Xianxin said, just lie to me. Most of the time, the boss doesn’t know who I am.
Dependence is a terrible habit. Now, Wei Zhixian's saying is 'If you have any problem, ask Sima', Sima Qiu now 'If you have any problem, ask Wang Xian'... If Wang Xian can't come up with a good solution, Mr. Sima will most likely end up with a clumsy plan.
.
"Is there really no way?" Seeing that he was silent, Mr. Sima said anxiously: "Just say it. No matter whether it is right or wrong, it is all with a loyal heart. The lord will be very pleased."
"Excuse me, sir, how did things come to this?" Wang Xian asked without answering.
"Now that you are considered the eldest master's confidant, I will tell you the truth. In fact, the reason why things have come to this point this time is that the eldest master has violated the taboo of being an official." Sima Qiu sighed and said: "'Being an official is not a crime.
This is the experience summed up by state and county officials for thousands of years. I repeatedly told the eldest man, but after all, he was young and energetic, and refused to listen, which eventually caused such a disaster!"
The so-called squires and wealthy families are nothing more than official families and powerful landowners. These people are powerful and wealthy in the local area, and they have great hands and eyes. They can have relations with the government, the province and even the court. If you start to fight, Wei Zhixian is like this
The county magistrate is no match at all.
"There is a saying that a strong dragon will not overwhelm a local snake, not to mention that there are people above the local snake. When they respect you, they call you 'old parents'. When they are annoyed with you, they will trip you up, put eye drops on you, or even tell you to pack up and get out.
It's not impossible." Sima Qiu said grumblingly: "When the eldest master took office, I asked him to visit the wealthy squires in this county, but he actually cared about his status and refused to break the rules. So from the beginning,
His relationship with the squire was not settled well."
"But we can't blame him entirely, because the situation in Fuyang County at that time was so infuriating. You also know that for nearly two years before, there was no county magistrate in Fuyang. Although there was a county magistrate, Jiang County, his reputation was not justified.
Nor was he willing to offend anyone on behalf of the future magistrate. So during this period, it became a carnival for corrupt officials and local tyrants and evil gentry. They joined forces to crazily harm the public and private interests, take bribes and pervert the law!" Sima Qiu looked upright, but in fact he was shouting in his heart.
, why don’t you count me?
"As soon as I got off the bus, I discovered that Fuyang County was seriously annexed, with uneven taxes and servitude, loss of national taxes, and great trouble for the people!" Sima Qiu continued: "Needless to say, I also know that the trouble was caused by the joint efforts of the rich gentry and the county officials.
In fact, at the beginning, they also tried to win over and bribe the eldest master, but Dong Weng was deeply favored by the emperor and tried to repay his favor, but refused to join in with them, so he was hampered by them everywhere. After half a year, he was almost ignored. "
"Later, through the Lin family's case, the elder received a commendation from the court and finally became famous in Shilin, which gave him hope of turning the situation around." Sima Qiu looked at Wang Xiandao: "Speaking of which, it's all
You boy are causing trouble."
"How did I know it would be like this?" Wang Xian said with a wry smile.
"I'm just joking." Master Sima took a sip of tea and said, "But the eldest master did use this case to establish his authority, suppress the other party's arrogance, and start to rectify the Yamen." After a pause, he said: "In order to deal with foreign affairs, we must first settle the internal affairs.
If we don't get rid of those officials who collude with the powerful gentry, how can we talk about sorting out taxes and cracking down on the powerful?"
This was obviously Master Sima's plan. He was so praised by Wei Zhixian that he said "Sai Zhang Liang", and he worked hard to come up with a set of action plans.
The first step is to operate on the household. The so-called collusion between officials and gentry, more than 90% of the activities occurred in this room. The official Li Sheng in this house is the link between officials and gentry. If he is eliminated, it can be severed.
The connection between internal and external collusion. Then take the opportunity to suppress the powerful, organize taxes, and wipe out the collusion in the county!
This plan had high hopes in Weizhi County, and it successfully defeated Li Sheng at first, but when it touched on the fundamental interests of the gentry and local tycoons, it finally caused a strong backlash. More than a dozen students were dispatched to complain, and it was the squires who
General Wei Zhixian's army!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After listening to Sima Qiu's story, Wang Xian secretly regretted it. No matter how sophisticated his father was, he was just an official, but he still lacked strategic vision and failed to detect the higher-up's intentions early. As a result, he was used as a gunman by Weizhi County. He should have done it in the first place.
Listen to Little Fatty Wu's advice, go home and pretend to be sick, and let County Magistrate Wei fight with Li Sheng on his own until the overall situation is decided...
It's a pity that there is no regret medicine in the world. At the age of sixteen, when I became a housekeeper, I was already branded as a county magistrate, and I couldn't hide...
"In the afternoon, those squires are working to force the lord to re-enable Li Sheng..." Sima Qiu looked at Wang Xian and said quietly: "If there is no good way, the lord can only give in first to ensure that the autumn grain enters the warehouse on time.
"
"..." Wang Xian glanced at Sima Qiu resentfully, knowing that he was trying to scare me with Li Sheng, "Aren't those grain chiefs afraid of missing the date and being punished by the court?"
"Although according to regulations, the autumn grain should be collected in October, it can only be transported to the capital before February of the next year. From Fuyang to Nanjing, it is a 600-mile waterway and can be reached within a month. So they still have time." Sima Qiu.
He smiled bitterly and said: "To say the least, even if the date is delayed, as long as someone in the court speaks for them, they can completely shift the responsibility to the elder. So they are not in a hurry at all."
"For two thousand dan of grain, you really have to go to great lengths!" What the tycoon in this county has done is even despised by a man like Wang Xian: "How many hundred dan can a family share?"
"Two thousand stones is just a pretext. This is a battle between the tycoons of this county and the eldest master." Sima Qiu said solemnly: "If the eldest master loses, he will be completely ignored. No one in Fuyang County will listen to him anymore."
"What if we win?" Wang Xian asked quietly.
"If we win, the great master's prestige will naturally be higher..." Sima Qiu looked at Wang Xian's frighteningly bright moves and said with some dejection: "But I guess the squires won't give up, I'm afraid.
I will fight until I leave office..."
Sima Qiu was very frustrated. He wanted to prove himself, so he made this plan without Wang Xian. Unexpectedly, it would lead to a conflict between his boss and the gentry of the county, and he would definitely be in trouble in the future. Faced with the painful lesson, he finally realized that he was really not a bad person.
The source of the idea. He looked at Wang Xian pitifully and said, "My dear nephew, help me think about it. Is there any good way to help the eldest master pass this test?"
"Sir, I have already said that even if we win this time, it may not be good for the great master." Wang Xian sighed softly: "Then we can simply take a step back and live in harmony with the world."
"Oh, you think I haven't persuaded you like this?" Sima Qiu said with a bitter face: "To tell you the truth, the elder felt deeply humiliated and actually wanted to write to the court to expose the truth about Fuyang County's concealment of household registration, and requested to send an imperial envoy to supervise and evict
Hu Zhong checks the yellow roll. And according to the regulations of the Hongwu period, if there is any concealment of cheating, the parents will be executed and the family members will be exiled..."
"Will the imperial court listen to a seventh-grade county magistrate?" Wang Xian didn't believe it.
"He is prepared to die to remonstrate..." Sima Qiu said with a complex expression: "He said in the memorial that if the verification results are not more than 10% different from the yellow book, he will die to apologize!"
"Ah!" Wang Xian's heart was shocked. He didn't expect that the gentle and gentle magistrate of Wei County could be such a strong man. It seems that he still underestimated the scholars of the Ming Dynasty. "Have you submitted a letter yet?"
"No..." Sima Qiuxin said, isn't this nonsense? If I had already submitted a petition, would I still be here to argue with you? I would have packed up and ran away. "The memorial has been written. I will talk it over and guarantee that there will be a way to solve the problem."
, it’s not necessary to burn both jade and stone, so this will let the boss wait a little longer.”
After saying that, he stood up, bowed deeply to Wang Xian and said, "Xiannie, I know that you are from Fuyang. I don't want to offend the folks in the village for being a foreign county magistrate, so I have been keeping silent." Sima Qiu had an old face, and he actually said
He showed a serious look and said: "But the eldest master is a good official. Without such loyal and patriotic officials who are willing to offend others, what is the difference between the Ming Dynasty and the Meng Yuan Dynasty?"
Seeing that Wang Xian remained silent, Sima Qiu couldn't hide the look of disappointment on his face. "I'm such an old fool. I told young people how miserable the life was in the Yuan Dynasty. You won't take it seriously at all." He laughed at himself.
He smiled and said: "You only know how to protect your own family and your own clan. How could you know that the first thing you have to protect is actually the Ming Dynasty established by others..."
After saying that, Sima Qiu turned around solemnly and wanted to leave the room.
He had already lifted the door curtain with his hand, but he heard Wang Xian say behind him: "I was thinking of a way, and I didn't say I wouldn't help..."
"Uh..." Sima Qiu withdrew his hands at lightning speed, turned around, sat down, held Wang Xian's hand with both hands, and said with a chrysanthemum smile on his old face: "I knew you were different from them!"
Seeing that he was righteous and awe-inspiring one moment, but returned to his original self of wretchedness the next, Wang Xian helplessly pulled out his hand and sighed: "I'm going to be tricked to death by Mr."
"I will never treat you badly!" Sima Qiu said with a smile.
"Well, actually the eldest sir is on the right track, but he is too timid." Wang Xian lowered his voice and said: "I read in the newspaper that the imperial court is building the Beijing Bank and rebuilding the Grand Canal. Emperor Yongle has just personally conquered Mobei.
"The British Duke and the Duke of Guizhou are sending troops to Jiaozhi, and Zheng He's fleet is still sailing to the Western Ocean... Sir, what is the most lacking thing in the court now?"