Chapter 13 Chief Master
Yang Ling sat in the signing room, staring at the pile of cases in front of him in a daze. He wanted to start work immediately, but it was like an outsider who was suddenly facing a rotten fish net that was more than one person tall, with all his heads and no idea where to start.
If you think about the work that the county magistrate is responsible for, you will know that it is not just that you can see on TV that you are fine and sit in the seventh-rank hall and pat the auspicious wood. The finance, taxation, transportation, and law of a county, everything needs to be decided by the county magistrate. In the past, the county magistrate also had a bunch of famous criminals, money and grain masters, and the sword master. Now, the half-baked county magistrate, the county magistrate, has thrown all the money and pen masters to Yang Ling. Even an experienced Shaoxing master, I am afraid that I will be in a hurry.
The signing room is composed of three bungalows like candied haws. Usually, the county magistrate’s master and staff read official documents and handle government affairs here. In front of the signing room is the seventh-rank main hall where the county magistrate asks for the case, and behind is the residence of the county magistrate’s family.
Since helping the Ma family resolve the life lawsuit, the Magistrate Min highly praised him and immediately asked him to serve as a master in the mansion. Yang Ling was worried that he had nothing to do and was shameless to be raised by a little girl, so he agreed happily.
However, due to Han Youniang's grieving eyes, he had to tell the magistrate Min that being a master is just a temporary solution. When the exam is coming next year, he will still go to the provincial capital to take the provincial examination. The magistrate Min also agreed immediately.
In fact, he knew that his life was not long. He usually asked people and knew that even if he passed the top scorer at that time, the best result was to stay in the capital as a Hanlin editor. It would be great to be able to be a magistrate immediately. There was no high official to be a senior official. Now he just wanted to leave a family property for Han Youniang and a sense of responsibility for men. He didn't want to participate in the provincial examination at all, but he couldn't resist the tenderness of a woman. Han Youniang was not old, but his resentful eyes were enough to change his mind, at least on the surface.
County Magistrate Min was a soldier and his confidants were all in the army. He knew nothing about the governance of this county. The former Huang County Magistrate in the county was not yin and yang to him, and he was like a clay sculpture and wood carving all day long. If he hadn't been to the monthly salary, he could have seen him running to collect rice and money with an empty pocket on his back, he would have no sign of this person.
Fortunately, the people of Jiming Yishi are simple and have not had any major problems in more than two years. However, as the period of the major political achievements is approaching every three years, the court has to assess the achievements of officials. Although the magistrate of Min County is very rude, he can't help but have to make some plans.
When the imperial examination was held, where did the political achievements come from? In fact, there are only two things. One was the Qingming Festival under the rule, and the other was the timely taxation. The so-called Qingming Festival under the rule, as long as there were no peasant riots, merchants stopped the market, scholars protested, and there were no major cases, then they could report the peaceful and prosperous scene of not picking up the remains of the road and not closing their doors at night.
There were two teams of officers and soldiers stationed in Jiming Post Office, plus the officers of the Post Office and the county government office, which were more strict in management than ordinary third-class counties. No major incident happened in two years. However, this tax was not the case. Since the local area was a place where many merchants distributed, the commercial tax and tax bank was collected in time. However, the nearby residents were mostly residents in the mountains, and their residences were scattered and difficult to manage. In addition, the mountain fields were poor and the Tartars came to harass and loot from time to time. The payment of grain tax was not ideal, and it was inevitable that they would become the weakness of the magistrate Min County during the big test.
The magistrate of Min County was in a daze as an official. He went to the city a few days ago. After hearing Shangguan Lao Diao's incident, he realized that there were many words in the civil servant assessment. He was worried about not knowing how to show off his political achievements. Yang Xianggong fell from the sky. He naturally entrusted him with important tasks, hoping that he could help him achieve some decent results.
However, the government operation methods of this era are not something that Yang Ling can understand. Although Yang Ling was the director of an insurance company in his previous life, the management structure and system at that time would not be affected too much even without this director. Now it is different. He wants to make decisions about almost all major and minor matters. Yang Ling was in a panic and couldn't even handle daily official documents. How could he make achievements?
He straightened his body, beat his back and looked at the pile of case files with a frown. As the end of the year approached, a batch of Western Region specialties purchased by the Transportation Office was about to be transported to the capital. The trucks and mules and horses were not enough to be used, so he asked the county government to solve the problem.
The reception office received a letter from the Ministry of War that a large army had been mobilized recently and would pass by Jiming Post at night. The city gate was opened at night, and officers and soldiers were arranged to guard the city gates, so as to prevent people from entering the city while they were in chaos at night. They also needed to make good arrangements.
As the end of the year approaches, the curfew has been lifted. He is a famous criminal master, so he naturally has to arrange it to deal with it.
The smoke news of the beacon tower, the materials needed to be replaced, the plowing ox from the Dou family in the suburbs of the city disappeared, the fat pig that the Yi family in the Liujiaao in the west of the city was stolen, the Li family gathered several gangsters to tease the young widows, the children from the Hao family played firecrackers and lit the firewood piles of the He family. The He family came to argue and injured the Hao family's daughter-in-law, the Hao family sued the He family to commit crimes and injure people, and the He family sued the Hao family to ignite the fire.
What's even more terrible is that there are too many farmers who owed the government taxes. Some of them only delayed for one or two years, while others had been owed for ten years. They were simply clueless.
At first, Yang Ling slapped the table and asked Wang Bantou to take people to arrest Hong Mancang, the troublemaker who had the most arrears and the longest time, and wanted to kill him to warn him. When Wang Bantou told him that the county magistrate had used this method, he forced Hong Mancang's wife to hang herself. Hong Mancang became half-crazy and half-broken. After some literati learned about the matter, the matter was indignant. The matter was caused to the Ministry of Revenue. After the county magistrate was dismissed and removed from office, he had to give up.
It was the chief clerk Wang Yangzheng who saw that this young colleague was kind and serious in his work, so he secretly told him that Huang County Magistrate has been in the county for the longest years and has served two county magistrates. This old county magistrate is a very capable person and can be regarded as an old man in the officialdom. He might as well seek help from him.
After hearing this, Yang Ling gritted his teeth and bought ten kilograms of fat pork. A pack of good tea came to ask for advice. Unexpectedly, the Huang County Magistrate just taught his grandson to practice calligraphy step by step. After hearing Yang Ling's purpose, he just smiled faintly, and he just refused to help him with some advice. However, the pork and tea were honest and unceremonious, which made Yang Ling laugh and cry.
"Oh!" Thinking of this, Yang Ling sighed heavily, feeling a little sorry for the twenty-four cents he spent. The little girl at home occasionally bought some meat and pulled it into his bowl. She was reluctant to take a bite. If she had known this, she would rather take the meat home and give it to the pitiful and cute little girl to have a tooth sacrifice.
He picked up his pen and wrote the calculated results in the official documents submitted to the Ministry of Revenue to declare the money and grain required for next year: "There are 79 officials and yamen in Jiming Post, 158 postmen, 260 defenders in the city, 45 senior husbands, 82 post horses, 7,647 taels of silver in the annual salary, and 52 stones of horse material. In addition, cracks appeared on the battlefield of the Xicheng Gate, and they needed repairs, and a total of 1,16 taels of silver."
He picked up the official document post and blew the ink marks on it, carefully placed it on the stack of official documents. As soon as the curtain was opened, a man in green robe walked in. Several other officials in charge of copying and sorting documents in the room stood up and said, "Mr. Min."
Yang Ling looked up and quickly got up to salute. The man was Magistrate Min, wearing ordinary clothes. He waved his hand casually and shouted: "Okay, okay, I see that the sky is common, what kind of tribute is better? It's getting late, and it's all gone today."
The minor officials hurriedly began to pack their own things. Lord Min walked up to Yang Ling and saw that he had already processed nearly half of the official documents. He couldn't help but raise his fingers and praised: "Sir, I have great skills. When I see these things, I have a headache when I see them. I didn't expect you to deal with half of them so quickly, hahaha."
Yang Ling smiled bitterly. He handled it very quickly, but most of them were things that were taken care of by the superiors and subordinates. How could it be handled so quickly if you want to deal with it? Not to mention that those who have aged tax arrears have to be classified, maliciously arrears, and indeed poor families, these statistical surveys will take a long time to do.
The case of the lost oxen and the fat pig stolen by the company does not need to be sent to deal with any case. It takes as long as three or five days to investigate. These are not big deals, but it takes people and time to deal with them. It is impossible to deal with them.
In the past, those who were watching TV went on private visits to find out the truth. It seemed to be pure nonsense. There were so many things to do in a day, so why did he leave the government office and investigate the case in person?
However, he naturally couldn't complain to the county magistrate, so he had to repeatedly say: "Where is, the adults have been too rewarded."
Seeing that all the minor officials had been exposed, the magistrate Min smiled and patted his shoulder and said, "I am a rough man. I don't have to come with me as a scholar. I don't have to be so angry when I'm not in the court. By the way, hurry up with me to clean up. In order to thank you and me, Ma Yicheng invited us to Hongyan Tower to have a drink and watch a show."
Yang Ling couldn't help but hesitate and said, "Ah? I have to go home and tell my inner person first, so that she won't worry about her at home."
The magistrate of Min County laughed loudly, and punched his shoulder with a beard, and scolded, "Where are so many nagging things? Men, they naturally go home when they want to go home. When they don't want to go back, women stay at home and tell her what they are doing? After walking around, they became young and frightened."
The magistrate Min didn't help but let him go and took him out. Yang Ling had no choice but to go with him. Since the magistrate Min was wearing casual clothes, he did not sit in an official sedan chair. In addition, the Jiming Yicheng was not big, with only four miles between the north and south city gates. Hongyan Tower was next to Jinguang Temple, and was only separated from the county government, so he was even more impatient to take a sedan chair.
The two walked to Hongyan Tower, Ma Yicheng, Ma Ang, and Ma Lianer had already been waiting for each other on the first floor. This place was originally a theater, but it was just a screen to separate some independent spaces in the middle.
What surprised Yang Ling was that County Magistrate Huang was there, and he couldn't help but politely confront each other when he met. Ma Ang was imprisoned in prison for more than ten days, and his irritable temperament became much more restrained. When he saw his savior Yang Ling, he looked very intimate. He stepped forward and grabbed his arm and thanked him.
Yang Ling and Ma Ang are both young people, but one is gentle, handsome and delicate, the other is agile, burly, thick eyebrows and big eyes, and they are quite in love. It is an exception. Today, Ma Lian'er just puts on makeup and is beautiful and charming. She looks much more reserved when she looks at Yang Ling with a charming face that is suitable for joy and anger.
Yang Ling was very handsome. When he first met, Ma Lian'er loved him a little, but then he knew that he had married a wife, Ma Lian'er had just treated him as a benefactor and a friend of the opposite sex he liked.
Chapter completed!