Chapter 193: Human Relations and Worldly Wisdom Are a Big Net

Lin Zhu worked very hard during this period. After being scolded by Zhao Jun, he went to various counties in person non-stop and reported the situation of Anfeng's problems as soon as possible.

Anfeng has two main problems. One is corruption, and the other is that the disaster was not as serious as reported.

At that time, there was a lake called Shaopi in Anfeng County. During the Song and Ming Dynasties, that is, five years ago, Zhang Zhi, the magistrate of Anfeng County, made large-scale repairs to Shaopi, which made the water conservancy facilities here quite complete.

If the drought in Huoqiu caused 70% to 80% of the county's fertile farmland to suffer a reduced yield or even no harvest, then due to the perfect water conservancy facilities in Shaopi, the impact was only 20% to 30% at most, which was not as serious as reported.

However, local officials lied to the court about the disaster and asked the court to allocate about 90,000 hu of grain and grass. According to the market price at that time, this batch of grain and grass could be sold for more than 400,000 gu.

Most of them were resold by local officials, and only a small part was used for disaster relief.

But precisely because Anfeng suffered less damage, this small amount was just enough, causing Yang Gaogang to not notice it at first.

Or did Lin Zhu find that the accounts and interviews were wrong? How could he visit the people and find that there were not so many disaster-stricken people, but there were so many disaster-stricken materials?

After careful investigation, the truth was found.

Therefore, Lin Zhu could be considered guilty of meritorious service, and his hat of being the magistrate of Shouzhou could be saved for the time being.

However, if Zhao Jun wants to reduce his negative attitude towards him, this alone is not enough. He must also show more abilities. Therefore, before leaving, he must be given a task.

Soon Lin Zhu quickly ran from the prefecture government office to the transfer officer's office. Fortunately, the Huainan West Road transfer officer's office and the Shouzhou magistrate's office were both in Xiacai, Shouzhou. Otherwise, if Lin Zhu wanted to come over, his legs would definitely be broken now. All ran away.

At this moment, he was out of breath, wiped the sweat from his forehead, cupped his hands to Zhao Jungong and said: "I will see the magistrate."

"Lin Zhizhou worked hard."

Seeing his appearance, you probably knew that the other person ran over almost immediately.

Although he didn’t know whether he was just showing off or really in a hurry, there was no need to rush the other party. Zhao Jun said: “Sit down first and then talk.”

"Xie Zhiyuan."

Lin Zhu was overjoyed. Some time ago, he was not even qualified to sit, but now he can.

But Zhao Jun did not serve him tea.

When Yang Gao came to report on official duties just now, he had tea.

Lin Zhu came over and didn't even have tea. This is the difference between treating a capable official with no big stains and an official with dereliction of duty.

And it was Zhao Jun who did this on purpose.

Now that you are offered a seat, this is a signal from Zhao Jun, telling you that because of your performance during this period, you have barely passed the test and the crime of dereliction of duty can be bypassed.

But if you want me to take notice of you, this performance is not enough, you must work harder.

It can be regarded as one of the few things that Zhao Jun learned from the guys like Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng, and Wang Sui in the Constitutional Yuan.

Lin Zhu naturally understood this, and sat aside timidly, with his butt only daring to sit half way up, and then asked: "I wonder what the superior's mission is for calling the official here? The official will be willing to go through fire and water without hesitation."

He didn't even know what was going on, so he just said that he would go through fire and water without hesitation, which was obviously showing his true feelings.

Zhao Jun said with a smile: "You don't have to go through fire and water. I hope you can put the matter aside in Shouzhou and leave it to the general judge. You go to Bozhou immediately to find Shao Jingxian, the general judge of Bozhou. At present, the court does not know that Bozhou has been newly assigned. Is Zhizhou here? If so, take my warrant and check if there is any problem in Mengcheng."

"yes."

Lin Zhu quickly stood up and cupped his hands in response: "I'm going to leave today."

"No need to be in such a hurry."

Zhao Jun then said: "I will send someone to inform the Huainan East Road Transfer Envoy and ask him to conduct an inspection of the entire Huainan East Road and cooperate with your actions."

He was not worried about the involvement of the Huainan East Road Transfer Envoy because his name was Jiang Tang.

The year before last, there was a drought in Huainan. He was the transfer envoy of Jiangnan East Road at that time. He didn't have much to do with him at first, but because of the river across the river, he felt compassion and opened the Changping warehouse of Jiangnan East Road to relieve the victims in Huainan.

Later, Jiang Tang was transferred to Huainan East Road as the transshipment envoy, responsible for transporting goods to Jiangsu and Huaihe.

Moreover, Jiang Tang's son-in-law and student is named Shao Bi. He passed the imperial examination in February this year, the same year that Zhao Jun took the imperial examination. He is now the magistrate of Gaoyou County. At the same time, he studied at the Imperial College in his early years.

It happened that Wang Zeng had offended Empress Dowager Liu some time ago and was demoted to a bachelor's degree and then to the Imperial Academy. Therefore, Shao Bi was also Wang Zeng's disciple.

Before leaving, Wang Zeng gave Zhao Jun a letter to this person.

Zhao Jun had been on Huainan West Road for more than a month. He had already sent someone to deliver a letter to Shao Bi, asking him to report on the situation on Huainan East Road and ask him how Jiang Tang was doing.

Shao Bi has also written back, informing Zhao Jun that his father-in-law is upright and has a good reputation. No matter where he works, he is praised by the locals. He is also very keen on establishing education. He is unyielding in the face of adversity, loves to learn engineering and literature, and has a good reputation for future generations. Tireless till old age.

I don’t know if this comment is because the son-in-law is bragging about his father-in-law, or if it’s the truth.

But no matter what, Zhao Jun also checked Jiang Tang himself and found that there was indeed no dirty information. And I believe that Wang Zeng will not misjudge the person. He said that Shao Bi is fine, so there should be no problem.

So I asked Jiang Tang to help with the investigation.

Even if there is something wrong with Jiang Tang and Shao Bi, it doesn't matter. Then there will be no trouble in going back to find Wang Zeng.

After receiving Zhao Jun's promise, Lin Zhu was overjoyed and said, "Thank you, Magistrate. I will definitely live up to your trust."

"Go."

Zhao Jun waved his hand.

Lin Zhu happily took the new task and left.

After he left, Zhao Jun did not stay for too long. He asked the remaining deputy officials who were not involved in the corruption case to temporarily manage Shouzhou's official duties, and ordered to set off for Hangzhou immediately.

It is easy to go from Shouzhou to Hangzhou. Outside the city of Xiacai County is the Huai River. Take a boat along the Huai River all the way east and enter Chuzhou.

Then in Chuzhou, which is Huai'an City in later generations, go south along the canal and cross the Yangtze River to Jiangdong.

Zhao Jun set off in mid-April and arrived in Yangzhou in just five days. This is because of the southeast wind in spring and sailing against the wind. If the southwest and northwest winds are blessing, historical records show that it only takes twelve days from Bianliang to Yangzhou.

Yangzhou Wantou Town, because Yangzhou and Zhenzhou are important hubs for grain transport and salt transport, during the Zhen and Ren dynasties, grain transport reached 8 million shi per year, accounting for three quarters of the national grain transport.

Even the Huainan East Road Transport Commissioner and Shipping Commissioner Yamen were located in Yangzi County, Zhenzhou, which was originally the place Zhao Jun wanted to inspect.

However, since Zhao Jun went south this time mainly to deal with Sun Mian, the governor of Hangzhou, it was inconvenient to go to Yangzhou and Zhenzhou, so he had to go directly south from Wantou Town to the Yangtze River, without going to Jiangdu and Yangzi.

It was just that I only called Jiang Tang before, so I didn't expect that he was already waiting in Wantou Town with officials from Huainan East Road.

Zhao Jun had no choice but to get off the boat and have a meal with them.

The participants were all officials from Huainan East Road. In addition to Jiang Tang, there were more than ten officials including the Deputy Transport Commissioner of Huainan East Road, the Transport Judge, the Supervisor of Changping, the Governor of Yangzhou, the Governor of Zhenzhou, the Judge of the Two Places, and the Magistrate of Hailing County.

At the meeting, Zhao Jun and everyone had a great chat. They talked about the governance of Huainan East Road, and some of the current problems encountered by the Liangjiang Canal Transport, etc.

Among them, Hailing County Magistrate Zhao Yan aroused Zhao Jun's interest.

Because Jiang Tang's words, intentionally or unintentionally, were all introducing this person to Zhao Jun.

After asking about his political achievements, I learned that he was a second-class Jinshi in the first year of Jingyou, and had previously served as the magistrate of Chong'an County with outstanding political achievements.

He was transferred to Hailing at the beginning of last year. In just over a year, Hailing's public security, agriculture, and economy have all taken a step forward. Although Jiang Tang didn't know him, he admired him very much, so he specially called him to introduce him to Zhao Jun.

Zhao Jun naturally didn't know that this person was also a great talent in history. He served as a minister when Wang Anshi was the prime minister. He just firmly opposed the Qingmiao Law, but he couldn't deny his ability to govern the local area.

So Zhao Jun wrote down this person's political achievements, and when he came back from Hangzhou and inspected Huainan East Road, he would take a good look at the situation in Hailing.

After lunch, Zhao Jun set off again, taking the forked waterway from Wantou Town into the Yangtze River estuary, and then heading south to Hangzhou.

Another ten days later.

In the evening, in Linping Town, it was early summer in April, less than 20 miles away from Hangzhou.

On the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, two large ships slowly sailed south.

It only takes five days to travel more than 200 kilometers from Shouzhou to Yangzhou, but it takes ten days to travel 270 kilometers from Runzhou (Zhenjiang) to Hangzhou.

This is because most of the journey from Shouzhou to Yangzhou is the Huai River. If the boat speed is very fast, it can reach more than 10 kilometers per hour, and it can reach from Shouzhou to Chuzhou in almost one or two days.

And there is a canal section of about 100 kilometers south of Chuzhou. The water flow of the canal is relatively slow. In the absence of boatmen along the coast, it can only reach 4 or 5 kilometers per hour. It took almost three days to travel from Chuzhou to Yangzhou.

But the section from Runzhou to Hangzhou is all canal, and it only takes 10 hours a day to travel about 40 kilometers. Sometimes it is difficult to sail due to congestion or bad weather, and it is common to waste time.

Therefore, from the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, there are many records that the shipping from Hangzhou to Bianliang basically takes 15 to 25 days. From Hangzhou to Beijing, it takes more than 50 days.

It is the end of April, approaching May, and the weather is getting hotter. Standing on the bow and looking out, you can see the fertile farmland outside the town.

The farmland is lush and green, the rice seedlings sway in the wind, and occasionally you can hear the croaking of frogs.

Unlike the agricultural revolution in the north, which is currently undergoing alternating planting of rice and wheat, the south completed the alternating planting of Champa rice and local rice during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song Dynasty, so the south is basically paddy fields.

The Taihu Lake Basin in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River is the granary of the Song Dynasty. There are overflowing rivers everywhere, lakes all over the wilderness, and crisscrossing canals.

Under their nourishment, the densely packed farmland in the wilderness is filled with the faint fragrance of rice flowers, and in the turbid rice fields, fish are occasionally tumbling.

Zhao Jun has not seen such beautiful scenery in the south for a long time.

The last time I saw him was when he graduated from college and returned home the year before last. Then he left home in the second half of the year before last to look for a job in the north. He didn't find a suitable one, so he wanted to take the civil service exam, so he went to teach in the hope of getting preferential treatment after taking the exam.

So he hasn't seen his parents for more than two years, nor has he seen the spring scenery of the south of the Yangtze River.

I just don't know if there were people living in that mountain nest in Hunan before the ancestors of the Southern Song Dynasty migrated there, and whether there was a long-awaited small village.

"Dean, the pier in front."

Jiang Dalang noticed that there were a lot of people standing at the pier of Linping Town in front of him. I think they should be officials from Liangzhe Road.

After all, when they passed through Runzhou, Changzhou, Huzhou and other places, it was impossible for local officials not to know about it. It was just that Zhao Jun refused all the entertainment of local officials and went straight to Hangzhou, so he could come here so quickly.

But the local officials will definitely send fast horses to Liangzhe Road to report the news first, so there will naturally be a reaction from the Sisi Yamen on Liangzhe Road.

The ship slowly arrived at the dock.

On the wharf, twenty or thirty officials from the Yamen of the Four Divisions, including Zhang Xia, the Liangzhe Road Transport Envoy, Wang Yong, the Inspection Envoy, Li Jianzhi, the Tidian Prison Prisoner, and Xu Yuan, the Shipping Envoy, came over and bowed their hands to Zhao Jun.

"See the Academy."

"No gift."

Zhao Jun got off the boat, glanced around, and asked, "Where is Li Jianzhi?"

"The official is here."

A middle-aged official in front came out, saluted Zhao Jun and said, "I've seen the magistrate."

"hehe."

Zhao Jun stepped forward and said with a smile: "I heard from Mr. Wang that you have both ability and political integrity. You are a rare talent. Your future achievements will be limitless."

This compliment obviously had another meaning, and everyone looked at Li Jianzhi in a different way.

I heard that Li Jianzhi's father, Li Di, was kicked out of the court by his political enemy Lu Yijian. Later, he clung to the thigh of the magistrate. Now he has firmly secured his position as Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment, and is highly valued by the magistrate.

Now that Li Jianzhi has been praised again, the Li family is about to turn around.

Li Jianzhi hurriedly cupped his hands and replied: "This is all Wang Xiang's praise."

"alright."

Zhao Jun looked at everyone, and then said: "I am here on business in Hangzhou, so there is no need for you to make such a big move."

Zhang Xia, the transfer envoy of Liangzhe Road, came over and said: "Zhiyuan, we have held a banquet in the city, and I would like to ask the Zhiyuan to appreciate it."

"Well, let's go to the city."

Zhao Jun nodded and was about to turn around and get on board.

Li Jianzhi hurriedly came over and whispered: "Zhiyuan, I have something important to report to you."

"Get aboard."

Zhao Jun said softly.

Many officials then boarded their own boats.

Li Jianzhi took several of his men and carried one person to Zhao Jun's boat.

The ship slowly opened.

The group of people entered the cabin, and Li Jianzhi placed them on the bed in a room in the cabin.

Zhao Jun walked over, lowered his head and glanced around. What he saw was a pale middle-aged man with a broken left arm, a bandage, and strangulation marks on his neck. The scent of medicine came to his nostrils.

"What's happening here?"

Zhao Jun asked.

"This man's name is Xu Ming. He was a wealthy businessman in Hangzhou. He was imprisoned for treason by Sun Miao, the magistrate of Hangzhou. A few days ago, the official tried the prisoner in prison. He kept complaining about injustice, so the official brought him to the court. He didn't To think that he cut off his arm to show his innocence."

Li Jianzhi smiled bitterly and said: "The lower official felt that there was injustice involved, so he checked the case and unexpectedly discovered that a large number of official documents were stolen from the treasury. The lower official had no choice but to let him go, but he hanged himself in order to reopen the case. As a last resort, The lower official can only take him with him, protect him, and report to the Imperial Academy."

"What, is it difficult to reopen the case?"

Zhao Jun asked with a frown.

"Xiaoguan thought, in fact, before Xu Ming, he had intervened in a case, and Sun Miao was also sentenced. But when he was about to restart the case, Xiaguan's relatives, friends, old friends, and even the Fujian Road Transport Envoy wrote to ask him Please stop asking about this matter."

Li Jianzhi said helplessly: "The official knows that the inside story is not simple. I'm afraid there will be many obstacles to force a restart, so I can only trouble the Supreme Court."

"hehe."

Zhao Jun laughed, raised his head and looked at the rolling river between the windows on one side of the room, and said softly: "Human relationships are like a wide net."

Fortunately, he has few relatives and friends in Da Song.

Those corrupt officials didn't dare to find him personally, but he didn't even have any friends, so who could help them tell the truth?