Chapter 853
853
Lord Lin thought that Cheng Yeran wanted him to give him some benefits to suppress the matter.
He had made a lot of money from doing those things in the past, but his superior found out about it and asked him to split it in half. So he decided to split it in half. From then on, he and his superior were in the same boat, and he had someone to protect him, so he didn't have to do things secretly in fear. From then on, he became even more unscrupulous in making money.
For example, when it came to taxation, before his superiors shared money with him, he only dared to lie about the tax price and collected twice the tax originally set by the court. Later, after sharing the money with his superiors, he added many unfounded tax items. For example, previously grain was taxed according to output, but he added a tax on field area. The more fields a family owned, the more money they had to pay. At first, it was just a normal tax, but later he also collected a head tax. As long as they were from the province, no matter if they were adults, the elderly or children, as long as they were breathing, they had to pay taxes every month, which was almost like protection money.
Later, those who raised cattle, sheep, and pigs at home were required to pay an additional tax. Those who raised pets such as puppies and kittens were also required to pay taxes. In short, as long as it was a living thing, taxes would be collected, even if it was not a wild cat raised by the family and often appeared near their homes.
The people here were suffering terribly, but his life was getting better and better. However, later on, Lord Lin's superiors became more and more greedy and even asked to reduce the split from 50:50 to 37:30. He was somewhat dissatisfied and made false accounts to hide it from his superiors, but was discovered by them.
In order to punish him, his superiors demoted him to a county magistrate. He was still an official, but his position was not as high as before. His superiors were teaching him a lesson while preventing him from fighting to the death.
Anyway, he was getting old and had earned more money than he could spend in several lifetimes. He had a son and a daughter, but his daughter was gone and his son was a cripple, so he couldn't take the imperial examination to become an official. He was waiting to return to his hometown with his son and family to live out his retirement.
As a result, Cheng Yeran came now. Lord Cheng was in a lot of trouble, even more troublesome than his previous superiors. He didn't know what to do for a moment.
The wind
If he gave gifts, he was afraid that Cheng Yeran would use him as a trap to enforce the law. If he didn't give gifts, he was afraid that Cheng Yeran would make trouble for him. He was torn between these two issues at home for a long time.
Cheng Yeran was also waiting for his move, waiting for him to reveal his true colors, but Lord Lin did not take any action, so his investigation came to a standstill. He could not focus all his attention on Lord Lin alone, so he went to select the detectives.
He had previously posted a notice at the gate of the yamen recruiting constables, but no one came to apply, and no one even dared to pass by the gate.
Later, newspapers came out and reported on the arrest and dismissal of those constables who bought their positions. Many people applauded.
After the new prefect was appointed, those detectives were arrested and no one came to collect extra taxes. Lord Lin no longer dared to do the same things he did before in his own county. The people returned to their original peaceful lives. This was a right they should have enjoyed, but it made them feel extremely happy.
In the past, they were charged all kinds of outrageous taxes every month. This was also the case a month before Cheng Yeran entered the city. The people did not experience any difference after Cheng Yeran arrived. Now, a month has passed, and the new prefect not only did not collect more taxes, but also dismissed the previous constable from his position. He might be a good official.
However, he has only been here for a month, and who knows if he will show his true colors in the future. A large number of people still remain skeptical.
However, this does not affect his application for the position of constable. After all, a constable is a government official. Once he becomes a government official, he is no longer an ordinary citizen who can be bullied at will.
Cheng Yeran saw that there were too many people who signed up and he was overwhelmed. He had arrested all the people in the yamen and now there was no one available.
He had to write another notice, recruiting new people for all positions, looking for a legal advisor to be his secretary, and also recruiting a coroner. The previous coroner knew nothing and had bought his position with money.
The legal advisor was a scholar he recruited from the local area, who looked quite upright. He was forty years old and had no intention of taking the imperial examination. Although he was older, his advantage was that he listened to Cheng Yeran very much. He would do whatever Cheng Yeran said and would not do anything insincerely.
He helped write down all of Cheng Yeran's requirements. His requirements for the constables were quite high, with requirements for height and body shape. It would be best if they were strong men with good brains, good personalities, compassion, and good looks. That way, when he went out on the street, he would be surrounded by two teams of handsome and strong men. That would be very impressive.
He said he had so many demands, and he thought his master would be speechless and scold him. If he had a boss, and he was making unreasonable demands like this, he would definitely not be able to hold back his anger.
As a result, the lawyer just nodded, said he understood, and went to write the request.
Cheng Yeran suspected that he was a robot. He agreed to all requests and never expressed his own opinions. The most important thing was that he was not perfunctory and always did what Cheng Yeran asked.
Just a week later, he had screened a hundred people, and all of their heights met Cheng Yeran's standards, only some were better, there were no short ones.
As soon as Cheng Yeran entered the government office, he saw a hundred strong men crowded in the yard. Although they all looked different and not all of them were handsome, none of them were ugly and had good looks. If this happened in the future, they could even hold a talent show.
Cheng Yeran thought of a talent show and felt that he could hold a competition. This city was too lifeless and needed some life.
There is no need for voting, but the public can see the selection process and watch the entire competition in person, which will help them develop feelings for the candidates and make them feel more at ease in the future.
It's just not serious enough. If the emperor and the officials in the city knew about it, they would definitely say that what he did was too unorthodox, and they would write memorials to scold him, or simply scold him at the morning court, and try their best to stop him from doing so.
But this is not the capital city now. He is the prefect and he has the final say. When Lord Lin was the prefect before, he killed people and set fires and no one cared about him. Now he is just holding a competition and no one can control him.
He asked his master: "Where did you find these people?"
Master: "Your Excellency, the strongest men in the entire provincial capital are all here, please inspect them."
acceptance? Cheng Yeran couldn't help laughing when he heard this word, "You make it sound like I'm a fairy that sucks people's essence. Today I'm going to suck all these strong men dry."
When Cheng Yeran spoke, he deliberately lowered his voice, as if he was afraid of being heard by them. The master looked at his appearance, with deep and collective facial features, and he was indeed a rare handsome man in the world. The master was a little suspicious for a moment. Could it be that the master in their family was really a monster?
But the fairies in the storybooks are generally female, and there is no mention of male ones. The male ones are all monsters with ugly looks, and most of them are in the form of orcs. How could the adult in their family be a fairy who sucks human essence? Could it be that the adult in their family is a female fairy?
If the prince was here at this moment and heard what he was thinking, he would definitely get along well with him. He thought that Liu Ya was a fairy. When he learned that Liu Ya was Cheng Yeran's cousin, he thought that Cheng Yeran's family were all fairies. He even hesitated whether to tell the emperor about it, lest a fairy be made an official and enter the court, bringing disaster to the country and the people.
Seeing him thinking seriously, Cheng Yeran laughed even louder, "I was joking with you, you are not taking it seriously, right? Go and ask them to leave their basic information quickly."
The master breathed a sigh of relief, fortunately, it was not a demon.
He asked Cheng Yeran, "What is the basic information?"
"Name, gender, age, home address, etc." Cheng Yeran thought for a moment and added, "Also, whether there are any criminals in their family, and whether they have ever committed a crime."
Master: "You want someone with a clean family background?"
"Yes." Cheng Yeran heard him say that his family background was clean, and he always felt like he was on a blind date. "Just write these down and make a form. Forget it, I'll make a form and print it out for you. Ask them to register first, and then write the registration information on the form, save it, and make it their file. If they make a mistake or make a contribution in the future, put it all on the form."
The lawyer understood what he meant, and thought that he was worthy of being a high-ranking official from the capital, and his way of doing things was professional.
He then asked: "They are all men, is it necessary to write their gender?"
Whenever he encountered any puzzles, he would ask Cheng Yeran. This was also the reason why Cheng Yeran decided to hire him as his secretary. It was much better to ask more questions than to not understand his thoughts, make random guesses, and cause trouble for him.
The master's words also reminded me, "We can recruit female detectives. Not just detectives, all positions in the government office can employ women. As long as they are competent, it doesn't matter if they are women or men."
"But this is not appropriate." The lawyer put forward his idea for the first time.
Cheng Yeran understood his thoughts. After all, he was a man from ancient times. Moreover, the newspaper had held a vote before. The content of the vote was whether or not women should be allowed to go out to work. Ninety percent of the people disagreed in that vote. Although the proportion was very low, it was not 100% disagreement, so there was still hope.
Cheng Yeran pointed at himself and asked, "Who am I?"
Master: "You are the prefect."
Cheng Yeran: "So I have the final say. If anyone disagrees, let them come to me. In the past, when Lord Lin committed murder and arson, no one went to the capital to file a complaint against him. Can they still file a complaint against me for such a small matter? Moreover, the emperor has appointed female generals and men as officials. The emperor has set this precedent, which means that he encourages us to select capable women and men. Can we still go against the emperor's wishes?"
Master: "I understand, I will do it right away."
Cheng Yeran: "I said so much, and you just said one sentence to get rid of me?"
Cheng Yeran saw that the master was very frightened and tried to find words to answer Cheng Yeran, but he couldn't think of any painful words. Cheng Yeran knew that he couldn't stand being teased, so he stopped teasing him, "I won't embarrass you. Do you have any problems on your own? I can help you."
"How many days will it take for you to complete the forms? I'll print them and send them to them to fill out," asked the lawyer.
Cheng Yeran: "Three days."
The master told everyone to go home and come back three days later.
Cheng Yeran felt that he was quite efficient in his work. If he asked them to fill in the information, these 100 people would have to spend the whole day, which would waste paper and ink, and it would be messy. It would take a long time to copy them. He was not as thoughtful as his master.
It was also because when he was in Beijing before, there were too many people in the department. In order to assign work to everyone, many things were repetitive and unnecessary. He developed this bad habit and now he has to change it.
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