Yang Ling sat in the signing room, staring blankly at the pile of files in front of him. He really wanted to get to work right away, but he was like a layman facing a pile of rotten fish nets that were as tall as a person. He had so many things to do that he didn't know where to start.
If you think about the work that the county magistrate was in charge of, you would understand. It was not just the work that you saw on television, where he sat in the seventh grade main hall and patted the gavel. The county's finances, taxes, transportation, laws, and everything else had to be decided by the county magistrate. Originally, other than the county magistrate and the registrar, the county magistrate also had a bunch of criminal advisors, money advisors, and knife-pen advisors. Now, the half-baked county magistrate, Magistrate Min, had thrown all of them to Yang Ling, even if he was an experienced Shaoxing advisor. I'm afraid I'll be too busy for a moment.
The signing room was made up of three bungalows that were connected together like candied haws. Usually, the advisor and aides of the county magistrate would read official documents and deal with government affairs here. In front of the signing room was the seventh grade main hall where the county magistrate dealt with cases, and behind it was the residence of the county magistrate's family.
Ever since he had helped the Ma family resolve the murder case, County Magistrate Min had greatly appreciated him and immediately invited him to the residence to be a private advisor. Yang Ling was worried that he had nothing to do and that it was shameless to be raised by a little girl, so he agreed readily.
However, because of Han Youniang's sad eyes, he had to tell Magistrate Min that being a private advisor was only a temporary measure. He would still have to go to the provincial capital to participate in the provincial examination next year, and Magistrate Min agreed.
In fact, he knew that he didn't have long to live. He usually asked around and knew that even if he got into the top scorer, the best result would be to stay in the capital and be an editor of the Imperial Academy. It would be great if he could immediately be sent out to be a county magistrate. There was no high position to be held. Now, he only wanted to leave as much as possible for Han Youniang out of love and a sense of responsibility as a man. He didn't want to participate in the provincial examination at all, but he couldn't resist the tenderness of women. Han Youniang was young, but her eyes were filled with resentment. It was enough to make him change his mind, at least on the surface.
County Magistrate Min was a soldier, and the trusted aides he brought over were all soldiers. He knew nothing about the governance of the county. The original county magistrate Huang treated him like a clay figurine all day long. If it wasn't for the fact that he could be seen carrying an empty bag running to collect rice and money every month, he wouldn't even be seen.
Fortunately, Jiming Posthouse was simple and honest, and had not made any major mistakes in the past two years. However, with the three-year political achievement examination approaching, the court would assess the political achievements of officials. Although County Magistrate Min was thick-minded, he could not help but have his own plans.
Where did the achievements come from in the imperial court examination? Actually, there were only two things. One was to govern the country with clarity, and the other was to collect taxes in a timely manner. As long as there were no peasant riots, merchant strikes, scholar protests, and no major cases, they could report a peaceful and prosperous scene.
There were two teams of soldiers stationed at Jiming Posthouse, as well as the officers from the post office and the county government. The management was even stricter than that of an ordinary third-grade county. Nothing major had happened in the past two years. However, the timely collection of taxes was not the case. As the local area was a place where many merchants gathered and distributed, the collection of taxes and silver was timely. However, most of the residents in the vicinity lived in the mountains. Usually, their residences were scattered and difficult to manage. In addition, the poor mountains and the Tartars would harass and plunder from time to time. The payment of grain taxes was not ideal. It could not help but become the weakness of County Magistrate Min during the exam.
County Magistrate Min was a muddle-headed official. He had gone to the prefecture city a few days ago and heard about Shangguan Laodao's story. He then learned that there were many things to talk about in the civil service assessment. He was just worrying about how to show off his achievements. Mr. Yang fell from the sky, so he naturally entrusted him with an important task, hoping that he could help him achieve some decent results.
However, the way the government operated in this era was not something Yang Ling could understand. Even though Yang Ling had been the director of an insurance company in his previous life, the management structure and system at that time would not have affected the operation of the entire organization much even without the director. It was different now. He had to make decisions on almost all matters, big or small. Yang Ling had been in a terrible situation, and he could not even handle the daily official documents. How could he have made any contributions?
He straightened his body and looked at the pile of files with a bitter face. As the end of the year approached, there was a batch of Western Region specialties purchased by the imperial court to be transported to the capital. The carts and mules were not enough, so he asked the county government to solve it.
The reception office received an official letter from the Ministry of War. There was a recent mobilization of the army and they had to pass through Jiming Posthouse at night. They had to open the city gates at night and arrange for officers and soldiers to guard the city gates to prevent anyone from entering the city during the night.
As the New Year was approaching, the curfew had been lifted. As a criminal advisor, he naturally had to deal with matters related to public security and arresting thieves.
The beacon tower's smoke signal and fire signal materials needed to be replaced. The cattle of the Dou family in the suburbs were missing. The fat pig raised by the Yi family in the Liu family's Ao in the west of the city was stolen. A few local ruffians in the Li family village molested a little widow. The children of the Hao family in the north of the city played with firecrackers and set fire to the He family's firewood pile. The He family came to the door and injured the daughter-in-law of the Hao family. The Hao family sued the He family for coming to the door and injuring people. The He family sued the Hao family for starting a fire.
What was even worse was that there were too many farmers who were in arrears with the government's taxes. Some had only been in arrears for one or two years, while others had been in arrears for as long as ten years. There was simply no clue.
In the beginning, Yang Ling had even slammed the table and asked Captain Wang to bring people to capture the unruly Hong Mancang, who owed the most and had been in debt for the longest time. He wanted to kill one as a warning to the others, but when he heard Captain Wang tell him that the previous county magistrate had used this method, Hong Mancang's wife had been forced to hang herself, and Hong Mancang had become half-crazy. When some scholars found out about this matter, they were indignant. This matter was reported to the Ministry of Revenue, and the matter of the county magistrate being dismissed had no choice but to drop it.
It was Wang Yangzheng who noticed that his young colleague was friendly and serious, so he secretly told him that County Deputy Huang had been in the county for the longest time. He had already served two county magistrates. This old county deputy was a very resourceful person and could be considered an old fox in the officialdom. He might as well ask him for help.
Yang Ling gritted his teeth when he heard this. He bought ten pounds of fat pork and a packet of good tea to ask for advice. Who would have thought that Deputy Huang would only teach his grandson how to write. When he heard Yang Ling's intention, he only smiled faintly and talked about some nonsense, refusing to help him. However, he accepted the pork and tea without hesitation, making Yang Ling not know whether to laugh or cry.
"Sigh!" Thinking of this, Yang Ling sighed heavily. He felt a little sorry for the twenty-four wens he had spent. The little girl at home would occasionally buy some meat, but she would always put it into his bowl. Yang Ling could not bear to eat a bite. If he had known this would happen, he would have brought the meat home to feed the pitiful and cute little girl.
He picked up his pen and wrote down the result of his calculation on the official document submitted to the Ministry of Revenue to declare the money and grain needed for next year: "Jiming Posthouse has a total of 79 officials, 158 posthouse soldiers, 260 city guards, 45 long-term guards, 82 posthouse horses, 7647 taels of silver per year, and 52 stones of horse materials. "In addition, there are cracks on the battle platform at the west gate. It needs to be repaired. It costs 116 taels of silver."
He picked up the official document and blew at the ink on it. He carefully placed it on a stack of official documents that had been handled. The curtain was opened and a man in a green robe walked in. The other officials in the room who were responsible for copying and organizing the documents quickly stood up and said,"Lord Min."
Yang Ling raised his head to take a look, then hurriedly stood up and bowed. That person was County Magistrate Min, dressed in ordinary clothes. He waved his hand casually and shouted," Alright, alright. Seeing that Tian 'er is so common, what's there to be polite about? It's getting late, so let's disperse today."
The small officials quickly began to pack their things. Lord Min walked in front of Yang Ling and saw that he had already finished handling nearly half of the official documents. He couldn't help but raise his thumb and praise,"" Sir, you're so capable. This county gets a headache just looking at these things. I didn't expect you to settle half of them so quickly. Hahaha."
Yang Ling could not help but smile bitterly. He was indeed quick in handling the matter, but most of it was a matter of receiving orders from his superiors. It was impossible for him to handle the truly troublesome matters so quickly. Not to mention the different types of people who had long defrauded taxes, those who had maliciously defrauded taxes, and those whose families were truly poor would take a long time to complete the statistics and investigations.
Just the cases of cattle being lost and pigs being stolen required a few people to handle. The fastest investigation would take three to five days. These small matters were not big, but each one required time and manpower. It was impossible to handle them quickly.
In the past, he had seen on television that those officials would go undercover to investigate the case. It seemed that it was pure nonsense. There were so many things to do in a day. How could he leave the government office to investigate the case personally?
However, it was naturally inconvenient for him to complain about these things to the magistrate. He could only say repeatedly," You're too kind. Milord, you're flattering me."
Seeing that all the minor officials had left, Magistrate Min smiled and patted him on the shoulder.""I'm a boor, you don't have to be like a scholar, you don't have to be so angry when you're not in court. "Oh right, pack up and quickly follow me. In order to thank you and me, Ma Yi Cheng invited us to the Swan Goose Restaurant to drink and watch a show."
Yang Ling could not help but hesitate when he heard this. I have to go home first to tell my wife so that she won't worry about me at home."
County Magistrate Min laughed out loud, stroked his beard, and punched him hard on the shoulder. He laughed and scolded,""There's no need to be so long-winded. Men will naturally go home when they want to. If they don't want to go home, women should stay at home. Come on, Nian Qingqing has developed a habit of being afraid of her wife."
County Magistrate Min didn't let him say anything, pulling him out of the door. Yang Ling had no choice but to follow him. Since County Magistrate Min was dressed in casual clothes, he did not take the official sedan chair. Moreover, Jiming Posthouse City was not big. There was only four miles between the north and south gates. Swan Goose Pavilion was just beside Jinguang Temple, only one street away from the county government. He was even more impatient to take the sedan chair.
The two of them walked to the Swan Goose Pavilion. Deputy Ma, Ma Ang, and Ma Lian 'er were already waiting for them in a private room on the first floor. This was originally a theater courtyard. Although it was called a private room, it was just a separate space separated by a screen in the middle.
What surprised Yang Ling was that Deputy Huang was also there, and they exchanged pleasantries. Ma Ang had been locked up in the prison for more than ten days, and he had restrained his violent temper quite a bit. When he saw his savior, Yang Ling, his expression became very affectionate. He went forward and grabbed Yang Ling's arm, thanking him profusely.
Yang Ling and Ma Ang were both young men, but one was refined and elegant, while the other was muscular and burly, with thick eyebrows and big eyes. They actually hit it off quite well, which was quite an anomaly. Ma Lian 'er had only put on light make-up today, and she looked pretty. Her charming face was a mixture of happiness and anger, but her expression was much more reserved when facing Yang Ling.
Yang Ling's appearance was extraordinary. Ma Lian 'er had taken a liking to him the first time they met, but she soon found out that he was already married. Ma Lian' er had already treated him as her benefactor and a friend of the opposite sex.
A concubine's status was not much higher than a servant's. Even if he was a provincial governor and Ma Lian 'er was only the daughter of a low-ranking official, she would not be a concubine. Thus, the feelings for her had been nipped in the bud.
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