Zheng Li was the chief clerk of the prison department of Yanzhou Prefecture and a fifth-rank civil official of the Tang Dynasty.

Generally speaking, this official position is specifically responsible for the criminal justice system of Yanzhou Prefecture.

Although he was a fifth-rank local official, Zheng Li was a notoriously poor official in the entire Yanzhou Prefecture.

Zheng Li was born in a humble family with no money or power. After fifteen years of hard study, he passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi in the Mingjing examination. However, he was not lucky. Unlike his other classmates, he did not stay in the capital to become an official. Instead, he was directly assigned to be a county magistrate.

But Zheng Li never complained. From the first day he became an official, he worked diligently to govern the country and ensure the safety of the people.

Despite having no money, power or support from above, he relied on his political achievements to rise from a seventh-rank county magistrate to the fifth-rank chief clerk of the Yanzhou Prefecture in just thirteen years.

Although Zheng Li is nearly 40 years old now, he is still in his prime for an official.

In particular, the current prefect of Yanzhou, Dou Xiaozhi, thinks highly of him and believes that he has a bright future.

Not only that, Zheng Li also had a very good reputation as an official. He was honest and upright, always put the people first in everything he did, never took bribes or abused his power for personal gain, and when handling all cases, he was never afraid of the other party's identity.

For example, when Zheng Li was the magistrate of Yanzhou County, Dou Shu, the son of Dou Xiaozhi, the prefect of Yanzhou, got into a fight with someone and caused serious injuries. Zheng Li directly sent people to arrest Dou Shu and put him in prison after trial.

Faced with the people from the Dou Mansion who came to demand the person, Zheng Li argued with reason and did not give in.

Later, when Dou Xiaozhi learned about this, he immediately called his family back and praised Zheng Li highly. Dou Xiaozhi also personally stepped in and added three years to his son's sentence.

In the end, Dou Shu was directly sentenced to five years in prison. Originally, everyone thought that if Dou Xiaozhi did not cause trouble for Zheng Li now, he would definitely retaliate against Zheng Li in the future.

But only one year later, Dou Xiaozhi promoted Zheng Li from the sixth rank to the fifth rank, and was very polite to Zheng Li, always calling him "Sir".

Whenever Dou Xiaozhi heard that Zheng Li's family was in trouble, he would even use his own family wealth to help Zheng Li.

Zheng Li was an honest official. Apart from his salary from the court, he had no other income. Even his wife had to weave cloth and sell it for a living.

So in this situation, there would definitely be times of financial difficulties, and Dou Xiaozhi would often help Zheng Li.

However, every time Zheng Li received aid from Dou Xiaozhi, he would write a promissory note to the person who came to Dou's house to deliver the money. If the Dou family did not accept the promissory note, Zheng Li would not accept the money either.

Therefore, Dou Xiaozhi already had an IOU from Zheng Li for about one hundred taels of silver. Although Zheng Li would pay it back as soon as he had money, it would probably take him more than ten years to pay it back with his salary alone.

However, Dou Xiaozhi didn't care at all. More than one hundred taels of silver couldn't even buy a vase in his house.

However, the matter of these IOUs was leaked out somehow, so the whole Tang Dynasty soon knew that Yanzhou Prefecture had a fair and selfless gentleman prefect who valued talent, and also a chief clerk of the prison department who was ruthless and fearless of power and was known for his integrity.

Through these things, Dou Xiaozhi not only gained great popularity in the entire Yanzhou Prefecture, but also gained an excellent reputation as an official in the court of the Tang Dynasty, and even received praise from the Prime Minister of the Tang Dynasty, Yu Jiang.

However, no matter what Dou Xiaozhi's reputation and official standing were, among all the officials of Yanzhou Prefecture in the entire Tang Dynasty, only Zheng Li was awarded the Yaoxun by the Taixuandu Province. This seems to have proved a lot.

As the sky grew darker, Zheng Li walked back home from the prefectural government office.

His wife, Yun, was wearing simple cloth and sitting in front of the loom. When she saw her husband coming back, she stood up quickly.

Zheng Li took off his coat as soon as he entered the room, and his wife Yun took out the food from the pot in the kitchen and placed it on the table in the main room.

"You came back late. I said I would wait for you to come back to cook, but you didn't agree. I went to the yamen to bring you food, but you also didn't agree. How can you eat leftovers every day?" Yun said as she put the food on the table.

Zheng Li smiled and said, "Why bother with so much trouble? We're already an old married couple. If I come back late, you can just eat first. Our house is far from the government office. It will take you at least half an hour to go back and forth. You might as well use that time to weave more cloth."

"Besides, what's wrong with leftovers?" Zheng Li said, taking a mouthful of the warm leftovers in the bowl, and then said: "When I was a child, I went to school in the village. If I came home late at night, my mother would bring out the leftovers from the pot.

She kept the pot on low heat to prevent the leftovers from getting cold, so when the food came out, it was still steaming and there was even moisture around the edge of the bowl.

Speaking of this, Zheng Li sighed slightly. His mother had passed away five or six years ago.

When Yun heard Zheng Li's words, he couldn't help but smile gently. He and Zheng Li also had a son, but he was studying in Chang'an at the moment, not in Yanzhou.

"I'm a little tired today. I'll go to sleep after dinner." Zheng Li said to his wife.

Yun nodded and said, "Okay." Then she stood up and placed a cup of tea in front of Zheng Li.

This is Zheng Li's habit. Every time he comes back from the yamen, Zheng Li likes to drink a cup of cold tea, and he likes to drink hot tea in the morning.

After finishing his meal, Zheng Li sat there and drank a cup of cold tea. Then he sat there and rested for a while. Suddenly, he felt tired and yawned.

"Go to sleep if you're tired." Yun said softly while weaving.

Zheng Li nodded and said, "I feel a little strange today. I've been feeling sleepy. I don't know why."

"Maybe he's tired." Yun said with a smile.

Zheng Li returned to the bedroom, took off his clothes, got on the bed and fell asleep. In just a moment, he fell asleep.

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