Poor Family Chapter 505

  Chapter 505 Going North Together

  Li Yanqing explained his task of monitoring this time, took out the troop transfer silver medal from his pocket, and put it on the table, "This is Xiangzhou's troop dispatch silver medal. I'm going to transfer three hundred township soldiers."

  Wang Gui picked up the silver medal and looked at it, "This is the silver medal from the Privy Council. It can mobilize the Xiang army! How did you think of mobilizing the rural soldiers?"

   "Because it's your subordinate, I can trust it, but it's hard for Xiangbing."

   "The township soldiers have no status when they go out. If you don't mind, I can transfer 300 soldiers to you."

"how about you?"

  Li Yanqing smiled again: "Are you interested in going with me?"

Before Wang Gui could speak, footsteps came from outside. Tang Yuan'er brought them wine and dishes with two maids. The maids put two pots of hot wine and six or seven small dishes on the table. Tang Yuan'er smiled at Li Yanqing: "It's the first time for my family, Agui, to be the officiant at this year's family sacrifice. Is Li Guanren interested in watching it together?"

  Li Yanqing chuckled, "I'm afraid I don't have time, I'm leaving tomorrow."

   "That's a pity, you guys have a drink!"

   Tang Yuan'er backed away with a faint smile, Wang Gui sighed and said, "The biggest 'advantage' of marrying a lady is that you don't have freedom. Her ears are always everywhere. You heard it too. I want to go to her but I won't let her!"

   "Forget it, you are the officiant after all, it's not easy to leave."

   "What does it matter, I will still be the officiant next year!"

  At this time, Tang Yuaner said in the yard: "Ah Gui, Fifth Brother is here."

Li Yanqing and Wang Gui hurriedly got up to greet them, only to see Yue Fei walking in quickly. He was dark-skinned, wearing a coarse cloth jacket, leggings tied on his legs, and a plain scarf that was washed white on his head. He hadn't seen him in nearly a year. , Li Yanqing felt that Yue Fei seemed to be a different person, he used to have the temperament of a general, but now he is a simple young farmer.

But Li Yanqing also understands, he heard from Wang Gui that Yue Fei's father has completely lost his labor force and is paralyzed in bed, he has to support the whole family by himself, and his brother is studying in the state school, and married his wife half a year ago, his pressure very big.

Since Li Yanqing and Yue Fei parted on the battlefield, this farewell was also very affectionate. Li Yanqing pulled Yue Fei into the room and sat down. Wang Gui poured wine for them. Li Yanqing toasted and laughed: "For today's party, let's have a drink!"

   "Come on! Cheers."

  The three drank the wine in one gulp, Yue Fei asked with a smile, "Is Yanqing coming back for the New Year this time?"

  Li Yanqing shook his head, "It's a businessman passing by his hometown."

He briefly talked about his visit to West Hebei Road for inspection, and Yue Fei nodded, "The taxes in the past two years have been too heavy. This year, after paying the land tax and exemption money, only half of the grain is left after harvesting. Enough to feed myself, if I didn't have a part-time job in the government, the family would have to borrow money.”

   "You don't have to pay the exemption fee, do you?" Li Yanqing asked puzzled.

  Yue Fei sighed, "But my father and brother have to pay. My father is paralyzed, so I still have to pay. There is no room for accommodation."

  Li Yanqing said: "It doesn't make sense to ask the disabled to pay the immunization money. I will tell Zhou Chun that he must be exempted from your father's immunization money."

"Forget it. It's not the magistrate's problem. My father's money is exempted. How can I make up for this gap? Besides, it's not just my father. Other people with disabilities are the same. The county magistrate is also very difficult to deal with. Instead of reducing expenditure, it is better to increase income. "

  Speaking of Kaiyuan, Wang Gui thought of something, and hurriedly said: "Old Yue, I heard from my grandfather that Lushan Academy wants to invite you to be a martial arts instructor. Have you agreed?"

Yue Fei smiled and said: "Of course I agreed, and then I told my uncle to let my brother Xiao Fan go to Lushan Academy to study, so that he can go home every day to take care of his father, and I can live in the academy and hold two jobs. Go home, so that the family will be better off."

  Wang Gui's eyes lit up, "It's a good way to let Xiao Fan go back to Lushan Academy to study, I was worried that you didn't have time! I'll give him a donkey back, so he can go home every day."

   "How embarrassing! I've got my heart, donkey, I'll find another way."

   "What is a donkey? My family runs a livestock business, and it doesn't cost much. It's just a donkey giving birth to a donkey. Don't argue with me about this matter, or I will be annoyed."

   "Okay then! I'll be in your light again."

  At this time, Li Yanqing smiled and said to Yue Fei: "I plan to pay three hundred taels of silver to hire a temporary bodyguard. I wonder if Fifth Brother is interested?"

  Yue Fei smiled and said: "With your martial arts, you probably don't need my protection!"

Li Yanqing shook his head, "It's not me, it's the officials under me. They are all powerless civil servants. I'm worried about their safety. We have enough funds to go north this time. I'm not sure about hiring other bodyguards. Please fifth brother, I can trust you."

Yue Fei's heart was a little moved. His father had been ill for a long time and needed to take medicine for a long time. The family was really struggling. His brother Yue Fan still needed a sum of money to study in Lushan Academy. One hundred taels of silver, this amount of money can not only solve the urgent need, but also treat his father's illness. It happens that there is nothing to do during the New Year. Instead of sitting idle at home, it is better to go north to earn this money.

  Yue Fei thought for a while and said, "I'll go back and discuss it, and I'll answer you later!"

  Li Yanqing was overjoyed, and hurriedly said: "Tomorrow morning we will pass by Lushan Town, if Fifth Brother is willing to come, we can meet at Lushan Academy, and I will pay homage to Master again."

   "Okay! I'll go back and discuss it with my family."

The three of them drank another glass of wine, and Yue Fei had something to do at home, so he got up to leave first. Seeing that it was getting late, Li Yanqing smiled at Wang Gui: "Then I will go too, we live in Tangnan Post Station, leave It's sixty or seventy miles away, and it will be dark when we go back, see you later."

   "I'll send you off!"

Wang Gui put on a coat and sent Li Yanqing out of the gate. He followed Li Yanqing and walked slowly towards the entrance of the village. Wang Gui pondered for a long time, and finally made up his mind: "I still want to go with you, after all, you are going to Anyang to take Country soldier, that's my business."

   "But your family"

   "Ah Yuan is just talking. I really insist on going, and she won't stop me. As for my grandfather, of course he wants me to focus on my career, so I should be able to get out."

Of course Li Yanqing hoped that Wang Gui would go north with him, so that he would have a right-hand man, but he didn't want to force Wang Gui, so he said with a smile: "That's it! You go back and think about it. If you decide, then go with Lao Yue." Also meet at Lushan Academy."

   "Then it's a deal. I will wait for you at Lushan Academy tomorrow morning, and I will also pay homage to Master."

  Li Yanqing got on the horse, "Then see you tomorrow!"

  Wang Gui waved his hand. He also hopes to go out and do some business. He is really tired of practicing as a team in Xiangzhou.

Early the next morning, Li Yanqing led the crowd to Lushan Town in three ox carts. Wang Gui and Yue Fei had been waiting for a long time at the intersection on horseback. Li Yanqing was overjoyed. He introduced Yue Fei and Wang Gui to the crowd. They are Wu Jinshi, skilled in bow and horse, and strong in martial arts. They all expressed their welcome.

  The three of them then went to the academy to pay homage to their master Yao Ding, and they all speeded up to Anyang County.

The biggest feature of local officials in the Song Dynasty was that they were concurrently served by court officials. For example, a doctor in the Ministry of War knew the affairs of a certain state, and the chief official title was a court official. .

This is not only the case for state officials, but also for road officials. The roads in the Song Dynasty seem similar to today's provinces, but in fact they are quite different. The roads in the Song Dynasty did not have senior officials. As for the prison officials, they are only officials who belong to the imperial court, not local officials.

  The transshipment officer is in charge of the transportation and deployment of materials along the way, and it is actually the most powerful official along the way.

There were no local financial powers such as local taxation bureaus in prefectures and counties in the Song Dynasty. All the taxes collected every year were turned over to the imperial court, and then the imperial court allocated the most basic expenses such as staff salaries, office funds, and educational expenses according to the needs of the operation of each state and county. The basic administrative fees and other expenses are all free, so the Song Dynasty was famous for its rich temples and poor monks, and the county government offices in every county were dilapidated, and there was really no money to repair them.

   But even the most basic administrative expenses are not enough. The imperial court sympathized and allowed the public housing and public land in all states and counties to be rented out, and the rent was used to make up for the lack of public funds, that is, office funds.

  The transfer envoy is responsible for appropriating the basic financial funds of the states and counties, and it actually holds the local financial power.

Of course, prefects and counties also have their own ways of making money, otherwise how could they afford to hire staff and marry concubines? It's just that their gray income must not be used for obvious purposes, such as building bridges, roads, city walls, and government offices. Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain to the court where the money came from.

  The supervisory censors are also focusing on these targets. For example, the county government in Tangyin County has been renovated, and the supervisory censors will immediately ask Zhou Chun, where does the money for the renovation of the county government come from? If Zhou Chun can't explain why, he will face impeachment.

So it seems that the prefectures and counties are very fair and clean, with a strict system, and there is no profit to be made, but in fact, there is a huge corruption hidden behind this system. Bridges, roads, and schools are mostly funded by the gentry and the government is responsible. Construction, as well as the quota allocation of state schools and county schools, etc., once the money falls into the pockets of state and county officials, the court will have no evidence to check.

The transfer envoy of Hebei is also called the transfer envoy because he is also in charge of the transfer of money and materials from the east and the west of Hebei. He is appointed by Liang Fangping, who signed the Privy Council and the Minister of the Ministry of Criminal Affairs. Liang Fangping is about 60 years old and is also a second-rank senior official of the imperial court. , He used to be Cai Jing's confidant, and was single-handedly promoted and recommended by Cai Jing as the transfer envoy of the two roads in Hebei, holding the financial power of the two roads in Hebei.

  But after Cai Jing was dismissed as Prime Minister last year, Wang Fu and Li Yan emerged as new forces, and they seemed to be replacing Cai Jing and Liang Shicheng.

  Liang Fangping's petition was to impeach the chief officials of the five prefectures in Hebei Province, including Zhending Mansion, Hejian Mansion, Daming Mansion, Jizhou and Xiangzhou.

These five state capitals are extremely important. If they control these five state capitals, they also control the two roads in Hebei. These officials are almost all students of Cai Jing. Dominating the five state capitals means that Cai Jing's power in Hebei is almost completely wiped out. How can Cai Jing not hate Liang Fangping deeply?

This time, the Military Supervision Office came to inspect the preparation materials for the two roads in Hebei to perform their duties. The background was that a military warehouse in Zhending Mansion caught fire. The warehouse is under the jurisdiction of Liang Fangping's transshipment department.

  Of course, if there is a problem in one warehouse, you can pass the blame to the subordinates, but if there are problems in multiple warehouses, Liang Fangping will hardly be able to shirk the responsibility.

  This morning, Liang Fangping got the exact news that Li Yanqing, the censor of the censor, arrived in Hebei led by the inspector of the censor platform.

  (end of this chapter)

Chapter end