If Duco was in a good mood just now, he was in a bad mood now. He looked at the boxes of white silver, some glittering gold, some jewelry, etc., and his whole face turned black. "Is this all from the bandits' den?" So much silver, not including the money eaten and used by the bandits, so how much would it be if added up?
Duco thought of the old man Yonghehou. No wonder the bandit suppression was so active, no wonder the silver seized from the bandit suppression was directly used as military pay, it turned out that there was quite a lot of it. Thinking that this silver could be used as military pay, the old man Yonghehou must be in a good mood. However, he was not in a good mood because this silver was robbed from the common people.
Qin Fang said, "These were found in the bandit den, but I have already taken 40% of them. 30% is for the military pay for the development of the Yunxiang County military camp, and 10% is a reward from the emperor." Qin Fang said this without blushing or getting angry.
Du Ke glanced at him. If he didn't know Qin Fang's thoughts at this time, then he was not worthy of sitting in the position of the Minister of War and was not worthy of being the emperor's confidant. Qin Fang didn't directly say how much money was in the bandit den when he wrote the letter. It seemed that this was his idea. If he had said it, could he have gotten so much money?
Qin Fang also felt a little guilty. After all, it was the first time he did such a thing, and he was secretly praying for luck. If this thing didn't work out, and the emperor didn't agree in advance, but asked the imperial messenger to check the silver first, then he wouldn't get 30%, and his 10% would be gone.
Du Ke didn't have any idea. Although Qin Fang had some thoughts, compared to Yonghe Hou who took all the stolen money, Qin Fang's behavior was obviously much better. However, how could someone from Yongzhou military camp be more like a gangster than a thief?
Qin Fang added, "I only took 40% of the silver, and I didn't touch these jewels. Also, these are only what I found in the thieves' den, not including the county magistrate's warehouse. I went to the county magistrate's warehouse, but it was not touched, and I dare not touch it. Please go and have a look."
Du Ke heard this and felt relieved: "Let's go and have a look."
The county magistrate's warehouse was in the county magistrate's bedroom, and there were many soldiers guarding the door. As soon as Du Ke saw the posture of the soldiers, he knew that the situation inside must be serious.
The soldiers saw Qin Fang and saluted: "General."
Qin Fang nodded, stepped forward and opened the door: "Please, sir."
Du Ke and the people he brought walked into the house, Qin Fang followed, and then closed the door. Then Qin Fang walked to the portrait on the wall and took it down. The mechanism was very clever. If you didn't pay attention, you wouldn't notice that there was a mechanism here even if you took down the portrait, because the button of the mechanism was used to hang the portrait. So according to normal thinking, who would think that this was a mechanism? Most people thought it was a wooden nail for hanging portraits.
Qin Fang pressed the wooden nail inside, and then a wall moved away.
Du Ke and others walked in and saw three wooden cabinets, and the wooden cabinets were filled with either silver or gold. This amount was several times the thief's 50,000 silver.
Du Ke's face was very ugly.
Three years as a clean magistrate, 100,000 silver coins. This year, Du Ke really saw the meaning of this sentence.
Of course, 100,000 taels of silver was not considered a lot in Du Ke's eyes, and his Du family's assets were more than that. However, we had to look at the origin of the money. Fifty thousand taels were found in the bandit den, but they were robbed from the common people. For the common people who only spend two taels of silver a year, what does this fifty thousand taels mean? It means that tens of thousands of common people have been robbed, which means that even if there are not tens of thousands of common people, they have been robbed for many years.
Looking at the county magistrate's storehouse, even if he doesn't count carefully, Du Ke knows that if the gold is converted into silver, the money here must add up to hundreds of thousands of taels. How
much of the people's blood and sweat was plundered?
No, it may not be obtained by plundering the people's blood and sweat. The county magistrate should have used extraordinary means.
Du Ke looked at Qin Fang: "Do you know where this silver comes from?" His voice was as cold as ice chips.
Qin Fang felt that the county magistrate was going to be in trouble. "It was obtained from the bandits, and also from the Feng Family Clinic. The Feng Family Clinic uses cheap medicines and sells them in large quantities at low prices. Over the years, the profits have been very considerable. Moreover, the reason why the bandits only have 50,000 taels of silver is because there are many people and high expenses. But the county magistrate has a small family and low expenses, so he naturally has money."
Du Ke raised his eyebrows: "Small profits but quick turnover?" This description is somewhat interesting.
Qin Fang said: "It is to attract customers with small profits and increase profits with multiple sales." This is how his wife described him. "Moreover, the medicine of Feng Family Clinic has problems, so the effect is very slow. The slower the effect, the more people buy it, and the more profit Feng Family Clinic makes. However, the people don't know the trick. They think it is the same medicine as other clinics, but the price is cheaper at Feng Family Clinic, so according to the number of times it is bought, and compared with the medicine of other clinics, the people think they have made money."
Sadly, they don't know that they have actually lost a lot.
Du Ke said in a loud voice: "People who use the lives of the people to make this dirty money should be killed."
His murderous aura was so strong that Qin Fang and others dared not say a word.
Things in Huanshui County were still quite smooth for Du Ke. When Qin Fang subdued the thieves in the thieves' den, the thieves had already confessed. The thieves' confession included things about the county lord, so the county lord had no way to deny it. For a man like the county lord, happiness may not be shared, but disaster will definitely involve someone. So when he knew that he had no hope of escaping, he directly dragged Doctor Feng and the Feng Family Clinic into the water.
Speaking of which, the county lord still had some brains, at least Doctor Feng didn't know about him and the thieves. He would rather let the thieves ask Doctor Li for help than go to the Feng Family Clinic. Lest Doctor Feng use this matter to capture him.
And now, the bandit leader, the county lord, and Doctor Feng are all locked up together. The three most evil people looked at each other every day.
But after Du Ke met the county magistrate, he asked Qin Fang a question: "Qin Fang, do you know why the county magistrate has so much money but is still so thin?"
Qin Fang did not expect Du Ke to be so humorous, he said frankly: "I don't know."
Du Ke smiled: "Do you think he may be hungry and thin?"
Qin Fang could not understand this. To be honest, he had not paid attention to this issue before, and he did not expect that the majestic Lord Du would pay attention to such things. However, "No way? If he is skinny because he is hungry, what does he do with so much money?"
Du Ke nodded, "So, let me tell you why he is skinny. You may not know that some women, in order to maintain their slim figure, will pinch their sore throats every day, or eat some vomiting things, and then eat too much of these vomiting things, they will lose interest in eating, so, after they can't eat anything, they will be so skinny.
I think this county lord also has some of this tricks. If he has so much money, and eats a lot of meat and fish every day, his body will definitely be fat. Once he is fat, he can't maintain the image of Qingzhi County. As the saying goes, to see whether this county lord is greedy or not, just look at whether his body is fat. So, he should do this."
Qin Fang flattered him: "Your Excellency is wise."
Qin Fang stayed in Huanshui County for more than 20 days. During these 20 days, Du Ke had already left after handling the affairs of Huanshui County. Qin Fang had to stay here because the sick people had not recovered yet. He took them out of Huanshui County and continued on their way only after knowing that they had recovered.
However, when they were on their way, Yang Haiyan and others arrived in Yunxiang County.
People who have seen Huanshui County felt like they couldn't come back to their senses for a long time when they saw Yunxiang County at this moment. The main reason was that Huanshui County was too desolate. It was so desolate that standing outside the county city and looking at the collapsed city walls of the county city would make people suspect that they had gone to the wrong place.
Regardless of whether the county magistrate of Huanshui County was corrupt or embezzling money, at least on the surface, Huanshui County was well developed. No one talked about bandits. There was also a great philanthropist named Feng in the county town. Although the county town was not prosperous, it was still well developed. If we don't compare it with Huanshui County, we can compare it with the county town at the border. That was also well developed.
But what happened to Yunxiang County? The city wall collapsed. Did no one care? What did the county magistrate do? Could it be that because Yunxiang County was not at the border, the city wall did not need to be used to defend against the enemy, so it was left to collapse like this?
Captain Lu came to Yang Haiyan and said, "Madam, is this Yunxiang County?"
Yang Haiyan didn't know. Although she had read in a geology magazine that Yunxiang County was a relatively remote and poor place, everything in front of her limited her imagination. Because no matter how remote or poor it was, she didn't know that even the city wall of the county was like this?
Not to mention whether the court would care, even if it was reported to the court, would the county magistrate of Yunxiang County still have a head?
Yang Haiyan got off the carriage and said, "I don't know either. You can go ask the yamen runners at the city gate." They looked at the map and asked people along the way, so they should be right.
Captain Lu: "Yes."
In fact, the yamen runners at the city gate saw a large group of people coming, as many as 2,500 to 6,000 people, and they were also afraid, fearing that they were coming with bad intentions. However, they still came over with courage: "Excuse me...Excuse me, is it General Qin Fang Qin who has arrived?" The county magistrate said that the generals of the court would bring people here to settle down, and since there were more than 3,000 people, they should be easy to recognize.
Lieutenant Lu had just walked a few steps when he saw the yamen runner coming over. When he heard the other party ask this question, he cupped his fist and said, "I am Lieutenant Lu Zhide under General Qin. General Qin was delayed in Huanshui County because of court affairs. In addition, several hundred of us are sick and have to stay in Huanshui County for treatment. Therefore, the general asked us to bring these more than 2,000 people here first."
The yamen runner heaved a sigh of relief when he heard this. It was clearly a half-month journey, but these people arrived after a month. Naturally, the county magistrate was worried about accidents. Once the county magistrate was worried, they would be scolded, so they would walk a distance every day and wait for General Qin's large group to arrive nearby. "Hello, Captain Lu. You are finally here. The county magistrate is waiting for you. Please come in quickly."
Captain Lu said, "No hurry. The general's wife is traveling with us this time. I will go and ask her first."
When the yamen runner heard that the general's wife had come, he hurriedly said, "No hurry, no hurry." Even though he said that, the other yamen runners had already run back to the county government to inform the county magistrate.
Captain Lu came to the carriage and said, "Madam, these yamen runners are waiting for the general here under the order of the county magistrate. We are invited to the county yamen now. What do you think?"
Yang Haiyan said, "Send someone to set up tents here first to settle the people who came with us, and then go to the county city to buy food. Everyone is tired from the journey, so it is important to eat." The county magistrate is only a seventh rank, and Qin Fang is a fifth rank. Qin Fang came here on orders, so naturally the county magistrate came out to greet him, and he would never visit him. Even if Qin Fang is not here now, he has to put on a show.
Yang Haiyan didn't know whether the county magistrate was going to show Qin Fang a warning, but as Qin Fang's wife, she naturally had to establish authority on behalf of Qin Fang. It was impossible for her to visit today. Either the county master would come out to greet him, or everyone would just wait and see. It would depend on who could outlast him.
However, after a rough look at the condition of the city wall, she was sure that the county master would come.
Captain Lu got what Yang Haiyan said and immediately called everyone to gather. He arranged for most people to set up tents and for some people to go to the county city to buy food.
Only Aunt Yu and Aunt Hong were with Yang Haiyan, while Aunt Fan and Aunt Lian stayed with Qin Fang. Aunt Yu could only do rough work and could not take charge. Aunt Hong had a child, so it was not convenient. Speaking of which, Hong Datou was really amazing. Such a young child was not infected with the cold. During that period, some people were infected, and the number of infected people gradually increased. Uncle Hong and Aunt Hong were very worried about Hong Datou.
But they didn't know that Hong Datou was alive and well. Uncle Hong and Aunt Hong were happy, and Yang Haiyan was happy too. She watched Hong Datou grow up, and he kept his body healthy with a bowl of goat milk every day. She also hoped that he would be well.
Yang Haiyan's eyes stopped on Niu Dapo Niang and Kun Zhang, and after a while, she retracted her eyes.
The tent was not set up yet, and the people who went to collect food had not returned yet. The county magistrate Yang Shunlei came with the chief clerk Song Wenbing and Bai County Secretary. In fact, County Magistrate Yang had no intention of showing off to Qin Fang. He had been waiting here for several days, but he had not seen Qin Fang and his three thousand men coming. He did not know when Qin Fang would arrive, so he did not come out to greet him. As a county magistrate from a poor place,
what could he use to show off to a general of the fifth rank with soldiers? Was he a local tyrant? Could he rely on these insignificant generals in the county government? County Magistrate Yang did not have this confidence.
Yang Haiyan stood beside the carriage and watched County Magistrate Yang coming.
County Magistrate Yang knew that General Qin had not come, but Mrs. Qin was also a fifth rank imperial edict, higher than him. Moreover, he already knew the background of General Qin. Even if he was the magistrate of a poor county, he still had a few acquaintances. Knowing that the court was going to transfer a general to defend the city, he always wanted to get to know him. However, he did not expect that he and this Mrs. Qin had some background, which was unexpected.
The magistrate of Yang County said, "I am the magistrate of Yunxiang County, Yang Shunlei, and I have come to see you, my lady, with the county magistrate Bai
Wenshu and the chief clerk Song Wenbing." Yang Haiyan returned the greeting and said, "I have come to see you, my lady, Yang Haiyan, the county magistrate Bai and the chief clerk Song. The general was delayed in Huanshui County by some matters, so I am taking some people with me and hurrying on the way. The general has said that these people should be settled outside the county city first and will be arranged after the general returns. Regarding some matters, my lady, Yang Haiyan can discuss with Lieutenant Lu."
The magistrate of Yang County said, "Yes. Your lady, , the general's mansion has been renovated and cleaned, you can enter the mansion at any time."
This was a pleasant surprise for Yang Haiyan. Lunch was not ready yet, so she said, "Then I will go and take a look, with Yang County Magistrate leading the way. Of course, if Yang County Magistrate is busy with county affairs, he can send someone to lead the way for me." Yang
County Magistrate: "No hurry, no hurry, please."
Yang Haiyan nodded, and then said, "Yu Aunt, Kun Zhang, you come with me. Captain Kun, you bring your private guards with you."
"Yes."
Yang Haiyan: "Let's walk there. This will be our home from now on. We can also get to know the local people along the way."
Yang County Magistrate: "You are thoughtful, but there is really no place in Yunxiang County for you to enjoy." When he said this, he sighed.
Yang Haiyan saw that there seemed to be something hidden in his words, but she did not ask.
County Magistrate Yang said again: "Speaking of which, I and Yiren may have some origins."
This made Yang Haiyan curious. She looked at him and had no impression of him: "Please help me, Lord Yang."
They walked in front, followed by the county magistrate, the chief clerk, Kunshi and others.
County Magistrate Yang smiled and asked: "Is Yiren from the family of Taifu Yang who was exterminated two years ago?"
Yang Haiyan was stunned and remembered the name he mentioned when he introduced her just now. Are you from the Yang family? "If so, it can be considered a bit of fate. It's not really a family relationship, but the fact that we met like this is also a fate.
After hearing what Yang Haiyan said, County Magistrate Yang understood that she tacitly agreed, so he explained: "I am a descendant of the Yang family within five generations, but the relationship is too distant, and my family doesn't have much connection with the Yang family. However, I did enjoy the benefits of being a descendant of the Yang family in my hometown in the past, so after I passed the imperial examination, I was sent to a pretty good place. After the incident of the Yang family the year before last, my lineage was not implicated and killed, but I was still transferred here. But to be honest, I am lucky to be an official and to be alive. "
Yang Haiyan sighed. The affairs of the Yang family did not involve innocent servants. For the servants, how could it not be a blessing? So it must be said that the laws of Qiguo were much more humane than those laws of ancient China that she knew. Although she and Yang County Magistrate did not know each other, the relationship did indeed bring them closer. She could see that Yang County Magistrate was also trying to get close to her, so there was no reason for her to push him away. After all, he was one of the local tyrants here. "So that's the case. There really is some origin. Originally, I left my hometown and came here, and I was a little scared. Now that I know that you can be considered an old friend, I feel relieved. "
Her words were a sign of weakness. After all, she was young, only eighteen years old, and it was not shameful for her to say these words.
County Magistrate Yang said: "My lady and the general need my help in many ways. "Yang County Magistrate also knew that he would never have a chance to rise to the top. Unless he had made great contributions, even if the emperor did not pursue the children of the Yang family who were five degrees of mourning, the court would not use them.
In contrast, Qin Fang was different. At the age of 22, he was a general of the fifth rank, and his future was limitless. So Yang County Magistrate was willing to make friends with them in advance.
As they were talking, they arrived at the gate of the general's mansion.
The gate of the general's mansion was very large, and the two stone lions at the gate were very majestic. The main thing was the shape of the house, which looked very large in area. Yang Haiyan asked, "This yard doesn't look simple."
Yang County Magistrate said, "This was originally the Prince of Liang's Mansion. Twenty years ago, after the Prince of Liang died, because he had no offspring, everything was taken over by the court. Now that General Qin has been transferred here, the court has asked me to directly renovate the former Prince Liang's Mansion into the General's Mansion."
Yang Haiyan had mentioned Prince Liang to Qin Fang a month ago. She had also seen him in a geological journal, but she had never thought that this would be Prince Liang's Mansion. Prince Liang's Mansion was not favored, so his territory was not good. But even if this territory was not good, there were better counties than Yunxiang County. Why did Prince Liang choose the palace here? Yang Haiyan was puzzled and asked directly: "Yunxiang County looks quite...poor. Why would Prince Liang, a dignified prince, build his palace here? "
Yang County Magistrate naturally knew about this, and it was no secret in Yunxiang County 20 years ago. So he said readily: "Because King Liang likes hunting, there are many prey in the mountain southeast of Yunxiang County, so King Liang simply built the palace here. It is said that when King Liang goes hunting, he will stay in the mountain for ten days or half a month. Moreover, this is King Liang's territory, and the mountain naturally belongs to King Liang. Therefore, King Liang does not allow others to go there to hunt. For this reason, the hunters were once unable to make a living. "
Yang Haiyan didn't expect this to be the reason. King Liang, who built his palace here just for hunting, must be very keen on hunting. But as a prince, no matter how bad his territory is, no matter how unpopular he is, no matter how poor Yunxiang County is, it won't make him suffer, and he still has enough food and clothing. So the poor conditions in Yunxiang County won't affect him, so why would he care about this? "So that's it."
County Magistrate Yang continued, "It is said that King Liang died young 20 years ago without leaving any offspring, and he died because of serious injuries from hunting."
Yang Haiyan said, "So that mountain is still quite dangerous. Let's go into the palace and take a look. "
The group entered the General's Mansion. Although the mansion was large and luxurious, it was built 20 years ago, so it was still quite old. County Magistrate Yang ordered renovations, but only the leaking parts were repaired. More than 90% of the places were not touched. The county government had no money to move.
So, after they entered, they saw that the mansion was a shabby one.
However, Yang Haiyan liked it very much. She turned to Kun Shi and said, "After lunch, let's move the things into the General's Mansion."
Kun Shi: "Yes."
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