Chapter 73 The First Assistant Is Just a Temporary Worker
"The world is really becoming more and more unpopular. I have been in Nanjing for four days and I only received such a small amount of gold."
On the eleventh night of the first lunar month, as another day of entertainment came to an end, Zhou Yanru, who was about to become the chief minister of the cabinet, asked his close aides to help him calculate the income of the past few days in the mansion provided by Wu Changshi, and couldn't help but sigh that the world was declining.
.
The Donglin Party raised 200,000 taels of gold for his comeback, and now they have only recovered more than half of it.
As the crowds had been busy in the previous three days, the number of visitors today had significantly decreased, and the amount of money each person gave was also much smaller.
Zhou Yanru usually refused to accept silver, mainly because it was too heavy. He was about to go north, and it was difficult to move millions of taels, so he had to transport it back to his hometown in Changzhou.
When you reach the level of the chief minister of the cabinet, the amount of money you have to carry around with you in the capital is huge, and it is more convenient to only bring gold of the order of 100,000 taels.
So far, the largest amount of money he has received is the 50,000 taels of gold given by Ruan Dacheng, which actually accounts for half of his total income in Nanjing.
But this money is not easy to earn. The reason is to withstand the pressure of the Donglin Party and at least give Ma Shiying an official as the censor of Qiandu. If you want to do it more beautifully, you have to give him a real governor.
And Zhou Yanru does have the motivation to do things beautifully - because only in this way can he become famous after his comeback, so that people who hold money and wait and see can see clearly the energy of his first assistant Zhou, and there will be an endless stream of people who will send money in the future.
,No longer hesitate.
When selling an official, you must also be honest and manage your goodwill well so that you can sell for a long time.
At present, it seems that Ma Shiying is the best example of a "rich person with a strong foundation".
The reason why Zhou Yanru lamented that the world was declining and the money he received was too little was mainly because he found that fewer and fewer people wanted to buy officials in the capital.
Originally, the Nanjing Six Ministries had a lot of resentful people who had failed in political struggles and wanted to make a comeback. If they caught anyone who wanted to return to Beijing, they could squeeze out a lot of money.
However, due to this year's market situation, the number of people rushing to go to the north to become officials has dropped sharply. Although Zhou Yanru couldn't ask clearly, he had roughly figured out everyone's mentality after observing it in the past few days.
These Nanjing wastes! They actually despise the lack of peace in the north and think that being an official in the capital is not interesting. They just want to stay in the prosperous and peaceful land of the south and become local officials with no pursuits!
Without the big deal of selling Beijing officials, it’s no wonder Zhou Yanru didn’t receive much money.
After all, there are only one or two governors who can be sold in the south who are close to the war zone.
In most other hinterland provinces that are not bordering the areas where the bandits fell, their governors are not easily held accountable, so it is difficult to remove them frequently and sell them again.
Not selling Beijing officials basically means that there are no second- or third-level top officials to sell.
While he was lamenting, a close aide came to report again, saying that it was Qiu Shangshu of the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs. He had just sent someone to deliver a message and invited him to a banquet tomorrow to report on some official matters.
Three days for invitations and two days for shouting. We are all decent people in the officialdom, so of course we don't just propose invitations at last minute. So Qiu Shangshu actually said this two days ago.
It's just that Zhou Yanru had no interest in it at the time and had already pushed it once before.
But this time his staff reported: "Mr. Qiu, Minister Qiu said that Minister Shen and Shen Daotai also have official matters to report to him tomorrow. You see..."
Zhou Yanru's beard twitched with the decree lines: "Shen Daotai? You mean Shen Tingyang and Shen Shuren and his son? It turns out that Qiu Shangshu had this idea... That's all, let's go."
Zheng Zhilong is far away in Fujian, so the Shen family is the richest family in southern Zhili. Zhou Yanru has been waiting to kill these two fat sheep for a long time.
Zhou Yanru has already made up his mind. If the Shen family and his son want to be promoted, they must extract a much higher price than others!
This is also robbing the rich and giving to the poor, doing justice for God!
…
Having made up his mind to slaughter the fat sheep, time soon came to noon the next day.
Zhou Yanru was sitting in a sedan chair with eight carriages, and Shi Shiran came to the house of Qiu Weizhen, the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing.
Regardless of his age, Qiu Weizhen insisted on going out to greet him in person.
Zhou Yanru did not rely on others. He still had the basic official etiquette of respecting elders. After getting off the sedan chair, he pretended to hurry a few steps and gave Qiu Weizhen a support: "Why should Qiu do this? It's not appropriate."
Qiu Weizhen showed no expression and just replied in a business-like manner: "I am a senior official in the officialdom. How dare you, a subordinate, rely on me to act like my elders?"
It turns out that although Qiu Weizhen is old, he is already sixty-six this year, more than ten years older than Zhou Yanru, and he should retire soon and become an official. But in terms of official qualifications, he is really not as good as the young Zhou Yanru.
Zhou Yanru was a Jinshi in the 41st year of Wanli, and he was the number one scholar that year. Qiu Weizhen, however, was a Jinshi in the 47th year of Wanli, two terms later than Zhou Yanru.
From this point of view, Qiu Weizhen is the same age as Ruan Dacheng and Ma Shiying, who were also in the 47th year of Wanli.
Ruan Ma is about the same age as Zhou Yanru, and is more than ten years younger than Qiu Weizhen. When meeting him, he has to call him "brother Qiu Nian".
Historically, Qiu Weizhen served as the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing, and he only served for thirteen years until Chongzhen.
In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, due to the repeated setbacks in the suppression of bandits in the southern provinces, many officials of the Nanjing Ministry of War were shuffled. Qiu Weizhen was transferred from the position of Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs to the position of Minister of the Ministry of War for two years before retiring.
After he retired, the Nanjing Military Department replaced him with Shi Kefa.
But in this life, Shen Shuren came through Chongzhen in the twelfth year of his life. Because of his butterfly effect, the suppression of bandits in the southern provinces went much more smoothly.
Four families of the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo who were entrenched around Nanjing were wiped out, so the people from the Nanjing Military Department could continue to eat in their positions. There was no need to transfer Qiu Weizhenping over, and Qiu Weizhen had been living in his position at the Ministry of Households for retirement.
"God's Coming"
It is estimated that in the future, after the current Minister of War of Nanjing retires, Shi Kefa will be replaced directly. And Qiu Weizhen of the Ministry of Household can also retire directly when he reaches his age.
A sixty-six-year-old man couldn't work for much longer. Qiu Weizhen himself knew that, so he was just dawdling around every day.
Last year, when his assistant minister was replaced by Shen Tingyang from Zhang Guowei, Qiu Weizhen discovered that Shen Tingyang was a good hand at accounting and financial management, so he handed over the daily official affairs of the Nanjing Household Department to Shen Tingyang in advance.
Zhou Yanru followed Qiu Weizhen in, chatting and laughing, but couldn't help but glance in both directions. He never saw Shen Tingyang, Shen Shuren and his son coming out to greet him, which made him secretly unhappy.
It's not that he is in a hurry for money, it's just that the rules of officialdom are there. For banquets, people with lower official positions always come earlier, and people with higher official positions have more arrogance. Otherwise, wouldn't it be very shameful?
Zhou Yanru stopped there very politely and hinted at this issue to Qiu Weizhen.
Qiu Weizhen was also a veteran in the officialdom. He immediately said calmly: "Did Mr. Ge forget something? Today, I am asking Mr. Ge to speak alone. Minister Shen just has official business to report to me today."
Zhou Yanru was slightly startled, but quickly realized that this was the Shen family giving each other a step down. It seemed that they were not deliberately trying to curry favor with him, but were here to do business.
It also seems that Zhou Yanru is not very greedy. He came to Qiu Weizhen today just to catch up with an old man who is about to retire, and has no other intentions.
After thinking this way, Zhou Yanru felt better.
He and Qiu Weizhen chatted about family affairs for a while, and after some nostalgia, Qiu Weizhen ordered the banquet to start first, without any intention of waiting for Shen Tingyang and others.
Zhou Yanru also pretended not to know anything, chatting and laughing, eating and drinking casually.
After three rounds of drinking, the steward of the Qiu Mansion came in to report the crime: It was Shen Shilang, and Shen Daotai had official business to see him. The matter was for the final recovery of stolen goods from Jiangxi's wealthy gentry and banditry, and he wanted to ask the minister to review and finalize.
Qiu Weizhen also pretended to accuse Zhou Yanru: "It's rare to invite an elder to visit the government, but I never thought that I would be burdened by the general affairs again..."
Zhou Yanru looked upright, stroking his beard and ordered: "It doesn't matter, state affairs come first, I will listen to you."
Qiu Weizhen waved to the housekeeper: "Then please come in!"
A few minutes later, Shen Tingyang came in with Shen Shuren and met Qiu Weizhen and Zhou Yanru respectively.
Zhou Yanru stroked his beard and said out of the blue: "Master Shen, the stolen property recovered and seized by the Jiangxi gentry and gangsters is under the jurisdiction of your Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs, right? My son seems to be in charge of military preparation in Huguang. Since he is here on official business,
Why does he want to talk to Wen?
Is it because those tycoons and tycoons were captured by him? But that is another matter. There is no need to report to the Ministry of Household Affairs."
Shen Shuren, through Zheng Chenggong, had previously captured a group of bandit tycoons, which was indeed related to the financial issues reported today, but those matters themselves should be reported to the Ministry of War, one code at a time.
When Zhou Yanru pointed out this sentence, it was not that he was deliberately making things difficult, but he was just casually tacking it to prevent the Shen family and his son from playing tricks in front of him. The trick of "pretending to report official business to save some face for both parties" was really poor acting.
While Zhou Yanru was talking, he was observing Shen Tingyang and Shen Shuren with his eyes.
He had met Shen Tingyang. A few years ago, before he was criticized and overthrown by Wen Tiren, Shen Tingyang was already a capital official, but at that time he was only a small sixth-rank head of the household department.
Zhou Yanru could only have a vague impression of him. Back then, he would never take such a small person seriously.
Seeing that he had been out of office for several years and then returned to politics, Shen Tingyang climbed from the sixth rank to the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing. Zhou Yanru was also quite ironic and felt a little unwilling in his heart: These people are really prosperous in officialdom!
As for Chen Shuren, Zhou Yanru had never seen him before. When he came down, Chen Shuren was not even a scholar, he was just a teenager! Now, he is also the censor of Qiandu.
He looks tall and majestic, not looking like a civil official, but rather a warrior, and there seems to be a fierce and fierce look between his eyebrows, which is quite inconsistent with his age.
However, what Zhou Yanru didn't expect was that the words he just typed were quickly resolved by Shen Shuren.
Shen Shuren was heard to say in a neither humble nor arrogant way: "Old Haojiaoge has learned that the official came with my father today to report on the gangsters in Jiangxi Province. He really has something else to ask for. I would like to ask Qiu Shangshu to spare no effort to expedite it."
Handle it, otherwise, I’m afraid things may change if it’s too late.”
Zhou Yanru flashed a look of displeasure: "Why did it change?"
Shen Shuren: "Xiaoguan received a report from Anqing Mansion last night that the Linnuang Department entrenched in Yinghuo Mountain has officially accepted the forced landing of Anqing Tongzhi Fang Yizhi, and its main force has also disarmed, heading west from Huangzhou Tongzhi
Compiled by Zhang Huangyan.
Just because Nanjing is catching up with the Chinese New Year, the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War are a little slow in handling errands. The previous affair with the bandits has not been completely concluded, and all the bandits here have surrendered. The lower official is afraid of delaying it for a long time, so he let Lin Yang
It becomes uneasy."
This information about Shen Shuren was sent to him in a hurry by Fang Yizhi. Of course, it was nominally approved by Shi Kefa and co-signed by Huang Degong. It only arrived last night.
Although Zhou Yanru claimed to be the chief assistant, he had not yet taken office, so he was naturally not as well-informed about military affairs as Shen Shuren. This was the first time he heard about this, and he was also surprised.
"How could the blockade of Lin Chengcheng be so effective? Cutting off his trade with bandits could actually make him surrender immediately after running out of ammunition and food? If this is true, why did the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo occupy the Dabie Mountains for four or five years before and after they were completely defeated now?
Full credit? The imperial court should have cut off its trade routes long ago!"
Chen Shuren answered in a logical manner: "This is not difficult to explain. Originally, Gezuo Wuying was intricately connected, the area under its jurisdiction was prosperous, and it was close to the Huai River, which could facilitate the smuggling of Huai salt.
Now that the third of the five battalions has gone, Ma Shouying has gone far away, Lin Chengcheng has retreated into the mountains, and the troops do not support him in plundering everywhere, so he is now in dire straits.
In addition, this also shows that in the southern provinces of the Ming Dynasty, the original strategy of blocking the bandits was implemented very poorly! No matter Huguang, Jiangxi, or Southern Zhili, there are countless wealthy gentry and profiteers who, in order to make huge profits, take risks and rob gold and silver.
Later, the thieves who needed to sell the dirt and restock the goods colluded! This matter can only be put to an end until the official is stationed in Huguang Military Preparation and collects lijin to strictly control the currency!"
Shen Shuren didn’t brag, he spoke very matter-of-factly.
He did not entirely attribute the reason why the last bandit had to surrender to the economic blockade. Instead, he said that the military strike made it impossible for the bandit to rob, and combined with the economic blockade, a two-pronged approach achieved this result.
The argument is pertinent and meticulous, and beyond reproach.
Zhou Yanru almost lost his beard and couldn't grasp the reason. He secretly screamed in his heart: If Shen Shuren really made so many contributions in a row, the imperial court would probably have to give him the position of Wan Fu.
Even if Shen Shuren is stingy and doesn't want to give him gold or silver, he doesn't have enough reason to block the progress of someone who has made such great achievements.
However, Ruan Dacheng's 50,000 taels of gold have been collected. Is it true that Ma Shiying was only restored to an imaginary censor of Qiandu without the actual power of a governor?
If the person who really made a meritorious service is promoted, the person who gave the money will not get as much benefit as the person who made the meritorious service.
After that, wouldn’t all officials in the Ming Dynasty think about making meritorious deeds? Their enthusiasm for paying for an official position would be dampened!
Everyone wants to do practical things and does not want to give bribes or give money. This Ming Dynasty's social atmosphere has been corrupted.
Zhou Yanru was still hesitating and pondering, but Qiu Weizhen on the other hand was very cooperative.
When he heard that Lin Chengcheng had surrendered and had completely surrendered his weapons, he quickly said that he would immediately settle the accounts of the Jiangxi Tong bandits, put all the seizures into the treasury, and identify all the seizures.
He also hinted at Zhou Yanru: If you want to reach out on this piece of paper, this is your last chance. When the case is completely settled, registered and stored in the treasury, these properties will all belong to the country.
Zhou Yanru was embarrassed. Where he could speak directly, the Shen family and his son had to express themselves.
Fortunately, Shen Shuren didn't make him wait any longer. The muscle display at the beginning was enough, and he still had to negotiate terms when it was time to negotiate.
He picked up the wine glass and toasted Zhou Yanru three times. Then he and his father sat down for the next minute and vaguely stated his conditions.