Poor Family Chapter 516

  Chapter 516 House thief is hard to guard against

At dawn the next day, Li Yanqing and his party left Xingtang County in 30 ox carts and returned to Zhending County. Today they will meet with the officials of the Transit Department, and they will leave tomorrow at the latest. They will return to the capital before the tenth day of the first lunar month. The report was handed over to Prime Minister Fan Zhixu, and then the reports of the three supervisory envoys were combined and submitted to the emperor before the 20th. The time was very tight.

It can be said that their on-the-spot surveillance has ended as of today. The ten consecutive days of high-intensity surveillance exhausted the officials and soldiers. Li Yanqing sympathized with the soldiers and specially rented 30 ox carts so that the soldiers could also sit on them. The bullock cart rests.

The bullock cart was moving slowly and bumping slightly. Li Yanqing sat alone in a bullock cart to review some of the first drafts written by Wang Zao, the deputy supervision envoy. Most of the first drafts were written by him, but some warehouses were inspected by Wang Zao. , this part of the first draft was written by Wang Zao.

   If there is no problem with the review, he will start writing the official report.

  The first draft of this supervision report was written in a thickness of more than 50 pages, with more than 35,000 words. He will shorten it to 20,000 words and form a formal report.

The report is composed of countless actual investigation data, forming a shocking fact. After reading this report, Li Yanqing knew why the Northern Expedition against the Liao Kingdom that started in the third year of Xuanhe failed so miserably. The main reason is logistics, and the troops were rushed out without preparing for the Northern Expedition.

The deep-rooted reason for the poor logistics was the decline of the national power of the Song Dynasty. The unrestrained enjoyment of the emperor Zhao Ji squandered the wealth accumulated since Wang Anshi's reform, and Fang La's rebellion severely damaged the source of taxation in the Jiangnan area. The continuous wars in the past few years have exhausted the various stock weapons accumulated by the Military Weapons Supervisor. It can be said that the Song Dynasty decided to go north when its national power was weakest. Without the support of strong national power, how could it be possible to win this battle? .

   His report came at the right time. He hoped that his report would be like a basin of cold water, cooling down the minds of those who were frantically clamoring for the Northern Expedition, so that they could regain some sanity.

At noon, the ox caravan arrived at Zhending County, and the soldiers got off one after another, including Li Yanqing. At this time, a group of officials came out from the city. The leader was Wang Xiao, the magistrate of Zhending County. He cupped his hands and said with a smile : "Welcome Li Yushi back, you have worked hard to supervise the censors."

  Li Yanqing also smiled and said: "This period of time is really troublesome for Wang Zhixian. Today is the last day of interruption. We will return tomorrow morning."

   "No problem, I'm ready for the station, please come with me!"

  At this time, Wang Gui wanted to lead his troops to open the way ahead, but Li Yanqing stopped him, smiled and shook his head at him, this is the core city of Zhending Mansion, there is no need to face the enemy again.

A group of people followed the magistrate into the county seat, and the posthouse was not far from the city gate, covering a large area, enough to accommodate more than 300 people. Wang Xiao also specially arranged more than 20 people to serve them. The supervisory censor was the magistrate Everyone in the Zhending Mansion tremblingly hoped that they would leave early.

Although people in the Song Dynasty did not have the habit of eating lunch, the post house still arranged for them to wash their dust with rich food and wine. Even ordinary soldiers can eat a lot of fish and meat. Li Yanqing was washing his face. At this time, Mo Jun hurried over and whispered Said: "Wang Zao is gone!"

  Li Yanqing was taken aback, "Wasn't he there when we entered the city?"

   "I saw him when I entered the post house, but now I don't know where he is?"

  Li Yanqing's face was a bit ugly. When he set off this morning, he said repeatedly that he was not allowed to act without authorization after arriving in Zhending County. This Wang Zao still ignored his prohibition.

  Mo Jun hesitated and said again: "All the supervision papers are with him, and I am worried that he will not."

  The supervision draft is very important, it can be said to be the original evidence, with the signatures of the supervisor and the warehouseman on it, because Wang Zao is the deputy envoy, and according to the usual practice, the draft is generally kept with him.

Li Yanqing also realized that something might happen. He turned around and walked towards the courtyard where Wang Zao lived. When he entered the courtyard, he saw Wang Zao's entourage. When he came in, his face was a little flustered, and he hurriedly tried to avoid it.

  Li Yanqing stopped him and asked, "Where did Wang Yushi go?"

   "Report to Li Yushi, my master has gone to visit relatives."

  Li Yanqing frowned, and ordered: "Go and find it immediately!"

  The entourage waved their hands again and again, "The villain doesn't know where the master's relatives are? I can't find him."

  Li Yanqing snorted, and walked into the room directly. Wang Zao had just unpacked the bundled luggage, so Li Yanqing didn't care, and just rummaged through his luggage, while the attendants bowed their heads beside him, not daring to say anything.

At this time, Li Yanqing found a leather bag containing official documents. He opened the bag, and inside was a thick stack of supervision drafts. , Liang Fangping accused him of nonsense to the court, but he could not produce evidence.

  While Wang Zao's words and deeds are irritating, he doesn't dare to go too far.

   "When Wang Yushi comes back, tell him that I need these documents urgently, so I will take them away first!"

  Li Yanqing took the black leather bag and walked away

In a single room of a very famous teahouse in Zhending County, Wang Zao was squinting his eyes to enjoy the tea served by a beautiful tea prostitute. After leaving the capital for half a month, he was attacked by bandits in Cizhou. Looking forward to returning to the capital.

The person sitting opposite him is Liang Fangping's confidant and aide Cui Mi. It is not the first time he has met Wang Zao. Taking part in the imperial examination, Wang Zao passed the Jinshi examination, but Cui Mi failed and returned home.

It was precisely because of this special relationship that Wang Zao accepted Liang Fangping's five thousand coins as soon as he arrived in Zhending Mansion. Come to meet Cui Mi.

  Cui Mi was very patient and waited until Wang Zao drank the tea before waving his hand to let the tea prostitute go down.

   "The result of this inspection should be very unfavorable to Liang Dujian!" Cui Mi stared at Wang Zao sharply.

   "You should know it well!" Wang Zao said with a faint smile.

   "There must be some discrepancies between the accounts and the facts. This is mainly caused by a century of malpractice. Which official dares to say that he is completely innocent?" Cui Mi wrote lightly.

   "Since this is the case, there is no need for Brother Xian to look for me."

  Cui Mi sneered, "I'm afraid that Li Yanqing will slander us out of nothing, so Liang Dujian wants to know the truth."

  Wang Zao bowed and said: "Before I tell you this, I want to know whether you sent the bandits in Cizhou? Tell me the truth!"

   "You're thinking too much. How could the majestic transfer envoys of the two roads in Hebei and the second-rank senior officials of the imperial court have anything to do with the bandits? Isn't it a joke that this kind of self-declination is spread?"

   "But we found that the leather armor of the bandits came from the military warehouse of Zhending Mansion. How do you explain it?"

Cui Mi took a sip of tea and said, "Perhaps what the following people have done is definitely not related to Liang Dujian. I will go back and report this matter. Please check the truth, but I can assure my brother that Cizhou was attacked. This matter has absolutely nothing to do with the capital.”

   "Okay! Put this matter aside for now, what do you want today?"

   "I want your audit papers!"

  Wang Zao was taken aback, and shook his head quickly, "I can't do this, and besides, the manuscript is in Li Yanqing's hands, and he doesn't believe anyone."

   "You are the deputy envoy. According to the usual practice, the manuscript should be in your hands!" Cui Mi continued to ask aggressively,

Wang Zao's face was a bit ugly, and he said for a while: "If the attack on Cizhou hadn't happened, maybe the manuscript would have been in my hands, but when there was an attack, Li Yanqing suspected that we had an inner ghost, and he didn't believe anyone, so the manuscript has been kept for a long time. Hold it in your own hands."

   "Is it really not in your hands?"

Wang Zao has also been in the officialdom for twenty years. Although he is greedy for money, he is not confused. He knows that Liang Shicheng and Cai Jing are watching the case behind Li Yanqing. His own future, so he will definitely not give the other party the supervision draft.

Of course, this is not because Wang Zao is determined, but because he refuses to do business at a loss. If the other party is willing to exchange 100,000 guan with him, he will probably agree, and he only wants 5,000 guan. As for the manuscript, he, Wang Zao, is not that cheap.

   "It's really not in my hands, I don't need to hide it."

  Cui Mi showed great disappointment on his face. He still hoped that he could take away the draft and give Li Yanqing the bottom line, but he didn't expect this idea to come to nothing.

   "Then what can you give me?" Cui Mi asked again.

  Wang Zao took out a stack of papers from his pocket and put them on the table, "This is some important content in Li Yanqing's report, I think you should also need it."

Li Yanqing's supervision report is a top-secret report, and will not be provided to the local government, but will be directly handed over to Prime Minister Fan Zhixu. The first draft of this report was written by Li Yanqing and Wang Zao, and Wang Zao could not see what Li Yanqing wrote. part, he made a copy of the part he wrote.

  Cui Mi looked at it, and felt that the content was a little too small, only a few thousand words, and he asked with some dissatisfaction: "Is it only this little?"

  Wang Zao suddenly became unhappy, and said coldly: "I have taken a great risk by giving it to you, this matter is over, I hope you will not look for me again."

   After speaking, Wang Zao drank the tea in the cup, got up and left.

  (end of this chapter)

Chapter end