Chapter 87 Throwing Bricks
Gu Mingda was prepared to get his head broken and bleed to get rid of Zhang Guangzong.
But his visit to County Magistrate Wu this time was quite bumpy.
The first person he met was not Magistrate Wu, but Mr. Chen.
"Zhongde, the county magistrate is busy with official business and may be busy today. If you have anything important, I will report it to you as soon as possible." said Master Chen.
Gu Mingda, whose courtesy name is Zhongde, was the name given to him by his teacher when he passed the examination to become a student.
Master Chen and Gu Mingda were also quite familiar with each other, and their words were very clear.
Seeing Master Chen's anxious face, Gu Mingda asked, "Mr. Chen, is there anything I can help you with? Just tell me, don't be polite."
After hearing this, Master Chen hesitated for a moment and then said, "Zhongde, you are not an outsider, so I just said that the higher-ups suddenly sent a message to check the old accounts. Now it is the end of the year, and the government is short of staff. One person has to do the work of two people. I have not been home for several days."
Gu Mingda was always understanding and tactful, so he said, "That's a good coincidence. I was just wondering how to repay the county lord's kindness."
Although Mr. Chen really wanted Gu Mingda to help, he did not dare to make a decision on his own. After reporting to Magistrate Wu, he happily took Gu Mingda to a room in the back court.
The back court had always been the residence of County Magistrate Wu and his family. It was surprising enough for Gu Mingda that it suddenly became an office space.
After entering, Gu Mingda saw that the spacious hall in the past was now filled to the brim. Looking around, he saw only piles of account books and exhausted faces.
It is obviously very busy, but not all the clerks in the yamen are here. About half of them are not here.
There were several literate yamen runners in the room.
Gu Mingda couldn't help thinking that he would rather use the yamen runners to make up the numbers instead of finding the other half of the clerks who were not present. It was obviously inconvenient to let the other half know about this.
Those who didn't come happened to be close to the previous county magistrate.
Magistrate Wu sat in the main seat with a solemn expression. From time to time, someone would bring an account book to him. After reading it, he would nod or shake his head.
Master Chen first took Gu Mingda to see Magistrate Wu. Magistrate Wu was very busy and didn't even have time to talk, but the look in his eyes when he looked at Gu Mingda became more intimate.
Mr. Chen had another table brought in, with a stack of account books attached.
"Zhongde, take a look at these accounts first. If you find any problems, tell me directly." Master Chen advised.
Gu Mingda nodded. He knew clearly what he was here for. If he wanted Magistrate Wu to go against official conventions, he had to at least become Magistrate Wu's own man.
Although their relationship was okay before, it was not close enough.
Gu Mingda picked up an account book and took a look at it. Suddenly he realized something. Then he took a rough look at all the account books on the table. Gu Mingda suddenly had some guesses in his heart.
He was still not sure, so he took the problematic page from the first account book to find Master Chen.
Master Chen took it, took a look at it, calculated with an abacus for a while, and nodded: "There is indeed a vacancy of five taels of silver."
Master Chen took out a brand new booklet and made a note on it.
Gu Mingda glanced at it casually and saw that the number on the page had accumulated to thousands of taels.
"Sir, are we going to audit the tax revenues for the past twenty years this time?" Gu Mingda asked.
Master Chen shook his head and said, "Not that long ago, probably from the land tax between the twelfth and eighteenth years of Fengqi."
When Gu Mingda heard this, his expression paused slightly.
Coincidentally, the period from the twelfth to the eighteenth year of Fengqi was the term of office of the previous magistrate Gou.
Gu Mingda returned to his seat, pretended nothing had happened, and continued to look through the accounts.
He worked as hard as everyone else in the room, putting his whole heart into the task, working with them till the light of day, without seeming to be at all unusual.
"Why do we suddenly have to check the accounts? The time is so urgent that we don't even take a break during the New Year?" Gu Mingda casually asked the clerk sitting at the next table.
When people are tired, their brains work more slowly. The clerk said casually, "After checking the previous accounts, it is likely that someone wants to punish the previous county magistrate."
After he finished speaking, he felt a little regretful. This matter was just his speculation based on Magistrate Wu's actions, so why did he say it so carelessly?
"Zhongde, have you forgotten what I just said?" the clerk said softly to Gu Mingda.
Gu Mingda didn't even raise his head, his eyes still fixed on the account book in front of him, and said, "I'm sorry, I was distracted by what you just said."
The clerk felt relieved, fearing that Gu Mingda was trying to trick him, so he asked, "What were you thinking about just now?"
Hearing this, Gu Mingda put down the account book, smiled, and said, "I thought of my little daughter. Her legs were numb and she told me that her legs were going crazy."
The clerk had only asked casually, but he couldn't help laughing when he heard this and said, "Children always have strange ideas in their heads."
Gu Mingda nodded and said, "Only a little girl would think so. My little son would only say that someone stabbed his leg with a needle."
Seeing that Gu Mingda was completely like a daughter-slave, the clerk became more and more certain that Gu Mingda did not hear what he had just said, and he felt relieved.
Gu Mingda was in a very complicated mood after getting the information out of the informant. He was now certain that the current Magistrate Wu had probably received an order from his superiors to violate official conventions and take action against the former Magistrate Gou.
Gu Mingda couldn't help but sigh that his luck was so good, it was like a pillow fell as soon as he dozed off, as if there was an invisible hand controlling everything behind the scenes.
Could it be that it was because of Niuniu that it went so smoothly? Gu Mingda couldn't help but wonder.
He has always had bad luck. Otherwise, he would not have taken so many years to become a scholar.
But he still needs to continue to push this matter forward.
Gu Mingda was busy in the county for three full days and finally sorted out the old accounts. He took a look at the data recorded by Master Chen and saw that the amount had reached a staggering 30,000 taels of silver.
Even so, County Magistrate Wu still seemed dissatisfied.
The county magistrate was unhappy, and the legal advisor became unhappy as well.
Even if you are not happy about it, you still have to eat. Firstly, it is the end of the year, and secondly, everyone should be rewarded for their hard work over the past few days.
County Magistrate Wu specially hosted a banquet in the back court to entertain the guests, and Gu Mingda was among them.
"Yellow rice wine?" Magistrate Wu was very surprised when he saw the jar of yellow rice wine that Gu Mingda brought over. He then said, "When I first came to Guang'an County, I heard people say that there was a kind of yellow rice wine in the county in the past. It tasted mellow and quite good. It's a pity that the winemaker has not made wine for many years, so I didn't have the chance to taste it."
Gu Mingda chuckled and said, "The winemaker you mentioned is my father. He is old and has forgotten how to make wine. This jar of wine was brewed by him more than ten years ago when I passed the examination for a student. I was hoping to drink it after I passed the examination for a scholar. Unfortunately, I was not up to the standard and had to endure hardship for several years before I was lucky enough to pass the examination..."
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