Chapter 845: Mud appears after snow

After a night of heavy snow, the sky in the capital finally ushered in sunny weather again. It was cold with only snow, and even colder with snow, and the snowflakes that looked white and flawless when they fell down finally lost their smooth appearance under the sunlight.

Mixed with the dust, cinders, and other messy debris all over the street, it has been stepped on by pairs of feet, either noble or humble, so that no trace of its original character can be seen.

Although the snow has stopped, there are still many delayed things that need to be dealt with. For example, the houses in Dongcheng collapsed, and passers-by who took shelter from the snow in the Chenghuang Temple froze to death. Another example is that the Beijing Camp and the Beijing Guards are going to the capital as usual in the next year.

It’s time to issue salaries and salaries to officials at all levels... It’s not a year of disaster or famine. Although the government does not have the obligation to build houses and set up porridge shops, it does have the responsibility to maintain a good year. Therefore, the Ministry of Household Affairs

The old scribes inside were making calculations, and the other yamen, while dealing with daily affairs, were also thinking about how to celebrate the New Year with this year's salary.

The world is still peaceful, and the Ministry of Revenue's treasury has become much richer in the past two years. I don't expect to take out the sappan wood pepper for folding. Although there was still debate a few days ago about the amount of folded money, the emperor has already issued a lot of money from Daning.

According to the edict, everything will remain as usual for the time being. In other words, even if we cannot add some as the cabinet minister Du Ge wants, we will not subtract 20 guans as requested by the Minister of Rites Hu Ming. At least it will be the same as in previous years, and this year can be passed.

have to.

The capital is large and difficult to live in. It is not only difficult for ordinary people to live, but also for the officials of the capital who come from poor families. Only a small group of people can maintain their dignity regardless of their salary.

Although it was still early in the morning, one of the small group of people was sitting in the room and frowning at something. After a long time, he moved his eyes away from the thing and turned to

There was a man standing in front of him with his hands solemnly raised. Immediately afterwards, he stood up, picked up the thin piece of paper with one hand and took it out from behind the table, and flicked the thing gently with his fingers.

"Did you check everything carefully this time?"

"Yes, sir. Originally, I just got a secret tip from an insider, but the things he handled were limited, and I just knew a rough idea. But on the way back, I happened to meet this coolie who had just loaded grain in Tongji Warehouse. The two facts confirmed it.

, this matter is at least 90% correct. Even if you are in a humble position, you will never dare to make the same mistake as before."

"That's alright. After you go back, you first send someone to treat the man who ran away from Tongjicang. However, I can't just send your message to the top. After I confirm it, I will send someone to you, and you can

If the news about this coolie is sent to the Jinyi Guards, he will naturally get the credit for committing the crime. As for the rest, let others leave it to others. After all, it is harmful and unprofitable to take it all on him. By the way, don't forget to do your best to heal that person. You first

Go ahead."

Hu Qi agreed and went out. When Zhang Yue saw the thick curtain lowered, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart. The accumulation of disadvantages, the important thing is the accumulation, but what the disadvantages are is less important. Over the years,

When accumulated, many things are like a powder keg, ready to explode. If it were not for the greater status, it would be difficult to detonate the powder keg without harming the body. Just like the previous investigation of fake hereditary officers and the fraud in the military election,

If you find it right from the beginning, things will be much easier to handle.

Fortunately, it has only been more than sixty years since the founding of the country. In another sixty years, the situation will be different. Having said that, if it is really cotton armor, he not only has to go to the Arsenal to find out clearly, You can't just wait for the Jin Yiwei to lift the lid - if the lid is ultimately placed on the head of the Arsenal Division, you will be shooting yourself in the foot.

After going to the Arsenal Department and having a heart-to-heart talk with Cui Fanzhi, who had been the doctor since he left, and confirming that there was no major disadvantage in the distribution of weapons, Zhang Yue returned to the house. Just as he was thinking about it, there was a message from outside the door curtain. a voice.

"Sir, the post horse is reporting that the batch of Jiao people coming from Jiaozhi will probably reach Tongzhou tonight. Accompanying them are Governor Fang and more than 500 people under his command. In addition to the two thousand Jiao people who have been ordered to stay in Nanjing and are placed along the road, In addition to others, there are more than 300 friends in this industry. Governor Fang sent a message, saying that he would like to ask you to come over. After all, these people were found by you before. Don't screen them again and again in Nanjing, but leave the important ones. I missed it. Governor Fang also said that during this last stretch of the journey, Tongzhou’s border guards will be accompanying them.”

This was one of Zhang Yue's biggest achievements in Jiaozhi, so he was not surprised to hear it now. If he wanted to send someone to make arrangements, it was naturally the responsibility of the Ministry of Rites, but since Fang Zheng invited him to go, even though it was cold, He didn't mind making a special trip, so he just agreed at first and didn't take it seriously. But when he heard that Tongzhou had appointed the full-backs, what Hu Qi had just reported immediately flashed through his mind.

So, he changed his mind in an instant, and loudly called the Zaoli in, and asked for a few more details. When he learned that the personal entourage sent by Fang Zheng was outside the Yamen, he picked up the chair that was placed on it. The big cloak on his back was draped over his body, and he ordered people to be invited to the front office hall to wait. Tongzhou, Tongjicang, Dingbianwei...the faint threads seemed to be connected.

When the Zhang family lived in three separate houses, the second house, Yangwu Bo Mansion, was naturally the most magnificent. Zhang Xin did not want to be compared to others, so although he could not go beyond the rules, he made a fuss about the interior layout. If it were not for the depth of every alley in the capital, They are all limited, and the mansion there is sandwiched between the Wu'an Marquis Mansion and the Yangwu Bo Mansion. I'm afraid Zhang Xin can copy the old Kaifeng house in the capital.

A few years ago, Zhu Gaochi posthumously named Zhang Yu, Duke of Rongguo, the King of Hejian, and granted the title to his ancestors for three generations. These three were Zhang Xin's great-grandfather, great-grandfather and grandfather. Therefore, the British Duke Zhang Fu and Zhang Xin and Zhang Zhuo After discussion, the ancestral hall was built in the British palace. Now that Zhang Xin has gone to Sichuan to take office, the mansion of Zhang's family gradually looks desolate.

Zhang You, the owner of Yangwu Uncle Mansion, was accompanied by his eldest son Zhang Chao to recuperate in Yunnan. He only had his wife Dongfang Shi and two daughters-in-law at home. Zhang You started his own business and did not have many old bosses and colleagues in the capital, so although It cannot be said that the front door is deserted, but there are also very few visitors.

Therefore, only when Zhang Yue was in great demand, after he took office as Minister of War, the family population increased a lot, and several more houses were built behind and to the west of the main house. The construction was completed before the end of the year. On weekdays, colleagues would go back and forth in the same year. Constantly, the relationship between Qiu Feng and others is entrusted to others. The butler Gao Quan often cannot cope with it alone, and Du Wan is also inseparable.

In the twinkling of an eye, it was already the twelfth lunar month, and the time for ancestor worship was coming soon. Sun often went to the British government to help. But Du Wan had something urgent coming up, so Zhang Yuesao had to tell Sun and Mrs. Wang with saliva. She had important things to entrust to her wife, so she stayed at home these days. Although she was at home, she left almost all the housework to Zhang Jing, and asked Hu Huo and Qiu Hen to help more. I spent the whole day in the main room looking at the things sent from outside.

The collection of intelligence is easier than the compilation of intelligence, and the judgment of intelligence is more difficult than the compilation of intelligence. What's more, Yuan Fang is not only gradually letting go, but also letting the younger generation take over, and the old people have taken over the industry one by one.

To provide for the elderly, the daily abbreviations range from a few to more than a dozen. Du Wan is in a hurry to judge the trends from these clues.

She didn't need Zhang Yue's instructions, and she didn't dare to use anyone else. Whenever she looked at these things, no one except Cui's mother, who was illiterate, was allowed to enter the house. At this moment, she added a few more names to the pictures she had drawn.

, couldn’t help but hold her chin in thought. While she was in a daze, Cui’s mother gently handed over a bowl of tea and placed it on the Kang table.

Seeing Du Wan's hard work all day long, Cui's mother couldn't help it: "Young mistress is really working too hard these days. There are so many accounts every day, how can you read them all? You might as well say to me, thank you so much.

Hire two accountants. Even the young master is working too hard nowadays, why not find two assistants? I heard that there are people submitting articles and self-recommendations on the door outside all day long. If you screen carefully, there will always be reliable people."

Nowadays, it is not the era when Shaoxing masters became popular in later generations and the Qing guest ministers filled the curtain hall. It is more that civil and military affairs do not intersect. Most of the people who are willing to hand over honors and honors are unskilled people with no fame. At most, they are supervisors.

He also hoped that he would be able to select officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs and be given a real position. However, he had more friends with civil servants, and most of them only talked about romantic affairs, articles, and poems, and did not mention serious political affairs. So, when Du Wan heard this, he shook his head.

"Those who are truly talented are all thinking about becoming officials themselves, and they are clinging to them now just for the sake of their future success. As for those who are not talented and want to become subordinates, their moral character will be poor first. Moreover, scholars are different from craftsmen who are proficient in various skills.

, he is always aloof and arrogant in his heart. Now the master and the slave are in harmony, but we may not know what will happen in the future."

"Then the young master doesn't have two students? Can't they be sharpened by these things?"

Du Wan just smiled and said nothing. Cui's mother didn't try to persuade her anymore. She just left the room and sat on the outdoor kang doing needlework. The room was extremely silent for a while. Du Wan looked through those things again and smiled bitterly in his heart——

She can see these things because she is Zhang Yue's trusted wife. Apart from people who are close to her parents, wife and children, who else can show such things? If someone doesn't have to intercept and cover it up, Cui's mother is the elder of the family, and

Illiterate, she didn't even dare to keep Cui's mother.

After Zhang Yue sent someone to return the gifts to those families, those families, after doing their duty honestly for a few days, saw that Zhang Yue seemed to have no further reaction, but there was news. One family's mother was seriously ill and asked for leave to return to the province;

One family just happened to be let go; one family was in a daze because something went wrong in their official duties and they were ordered to be demoted and sent to Liaodong... As for those families who didn't have time to deliver the gifts, most of them sent their female relatives here to express their feelings.

He may have said some soft words either explicitly or covertly, and it seems that he just listened to the gossip of outsiders, and then he acted recklessly and did the wrong thing.

Zhang Yue asked her to pay attention to this end first, but she felt that the gift-giving related to her father was probably just a means of strife among colleagues, and maybe there were others hoping to join the cabinet. On the contrary, it was due to fraud in the previous election, and Zhang Yue followed

When someone was assassinated and the assassin failed to kill the person, there was a sense of imminent disaster in the matter. Officers were placed in the Jingwei through false pretenses, and it was even possible to take advantage of the opportunity of sending eunuchs to the palace.

If people don’t say it’s treason, who can believe it!

As she thought about it, she began to circle and click on the paper she had sorted out with only a few lines written on it.

Zhang Yue had specially ordered Wu Dinghou Guo Xuan. This family seems to have been visiting relatives and friends too much recently. After Guo Guifei was buried, the family's position among the nobles suddenly moved back a lot, far less than that of the Queen Mother.

His elder brother Pengcheng Hou. But Mrs. Wu Dinghou almost met Zhang Jing once before sending someone to propose marriage, which was already very strange. Now when the British government pays homage to their ancestors, Mrs. Wu Dinghou is clearly not a family friend of the Zhang family, nor is she a close friend of the Zhang family.

To join in the fun, this is too flattering.

Recently, it is said that some people have seen dead people being carried out two or three times from the several kin-vassal mansions in the Tenth Prince's Mansion, and they were all sent directly to the death camp in the eastern suburbs. I have to say that I have not heard of any kin-lords or princes entering the capital this year.

Ye, there is no master in this mansion, why would you beat a servant to death and secretly send him out of Chaoyang Gate so early in the morning?

While thinking about it, Du Wan suddenly heard voices coming from outside. Not long after, Cui's mother stood up as if she was going out. She immediately put the paper in her hand into the box next to her and closed it.

He turned the lid twice with the key, took out another account book and placed it on the kang table for show. Then he picked up the pen and heard Cui's mother's voice from outside.

"Young mistress, the third lady is here and I want to ask if you are free?"

"Invite her in."

Du Wan secretly wondered, thinking that she kept Cui's mother in the outer room just to guard against this literate and smart young aunt who likes to run rampant without saying hello. How could Zhang Jing be so well-behaved at this moment and come in to find her?

Do you still want to ask Mother Cui to report first? After a while, the door curtain opened a crack, Zhang Jing stuck her head out and took a look first, and then slipped in.

"Sister-in-law is really free?"

"Since you and everyone are here, I'm naturally free. By the way, when did my sister Jing become so formal?"

Zhang Jing walked closer, glanced at the account books on the kang table, and then sat down next to Du Wan. Seeing Du Wan looking at her with a half-smile, her face turned red, and then she said angrily: "They are all three

Brother, you took me over two days ago and taught me a lesson, saying that you were helping him with important things. I came in and out to say hello more, don't disturb you from doing business... Don't talk about this, sister-in-law, just now the fourth sister-in-law

When I came back from my aunt's place, I came over and had a chat with me."

Du Wan then learned that Zheng Fangfei had come, and asked quickly: "The fourth younger sister is here, why don't you bring her here?"

"Who doesn't know that you are busy, and she is also afraid that no one at home will cause trouble, so she hurried back." Zhang Jing ignored this, grabbed Du Wan's hand and asked, "Sister-in-law, you know
Chapter completed!