Chapter 100: The Three Heroes of Jiangyin
Zhao Xiaokun led his men into Jiangyin City and stayed overnight. The next morning, Zhao Xiaokun and Fang Xinyu arrived at the Jiangyin County Government Office. A bailiff, upon seeing Zhao Xiaokun, quickly saluted and asked, "Excuse me, may I help you?" Seeing the visitor's impressive demeanor and the large group he brought with him, the bailiff knew he must be a wealthy young man or some high-ranking official. Therefore, he was very polite.
Zhao Xiaokun bowed and said, "Brother! I am the new Jiangyin County Magistrate, Zhao Xiaokun!"
The yamen runner was stunned for a moment. He had heard that a new county magistrate had been appointed. He had not expected him to arrive so soon. He hurriedly said, "Master Zhao! Our Master Zhou has been waiting for you to take over! Please come in!" The yamen runner quickly invited Zhao Xiaokun and his group into the county government office.
Arriving at the rear court, a middle-aged man in his thirties appeared, wearing a cyan official uniform with a heron-shaped official uniform pattern and a black gauze hat. He had a square face, thick eyebrows, narrow eyes, and three wisps of beautiful beard. As he sat there, he exuded an air of official authority. He had an air of authority without even being angry.
Upon entering, Zhao Xiaokun bowed and saluted, "I am Zhao Xiaokun, the newly appointed Jiangyin County Magistrate. Nice to meet you, Brother Zhou!"
County Magistrate Zhou stood up, bowed, and said, "My name is Zhou Yuntian, courtesy name Guoyang. Brother Zhao, please take a seat!"
Zhao Xiaokun sat down, and a servant served him tea. Zhou Yuntian asked, "Where are you from, Brother Zhao?"
"I am the eldest brother of the current Princess Kunxing's husband. I am originally from Nan'ao Country. I relied on my brother to get the qualification of a student in the capital. It's embarrassing to say!" said Zhao Xiaokun.
"So you are the elder brother of Prince Consort Zhao! We still admire the literary talent of Prince Consort Zhao. Are we still looking for heroes in today's world? So cool and generous!" Zhou Yuntian said politely. Although he was polite on the surface, he still looked down on him in his heart. After all, he was not from the imperial examination family. He relied on nepotism to get to the top. Lord Zhou passed the imperial examination at a young age, and was almost 40 years old before he became the magistrate of Jiangyin County. As the elder brother of Prince Consort Zhao, you probably got the official position by flattering the emperor! I just got my seat in Jiangyin County, and you replaced me. Now I have been transferred to the Censorate to manage the prison. It seems to be a promotion, but in fact it is not as comfortable as being in charge of a place here. There are too many mothers-in-law there!
"I'm new here and don't know the situation in our county. I hope Mr. Zhou can give me some guidance! This is just a small gift, not a token of respect!" After Zhao Xiaokun finished speaking, Fang Xinyu handed over a gift list.
This was the first time Zhou Yuntian had seen a new county magistrate give a gift to the previous one. Normally, the new and previous county magistrates would be busy reconciling accounts. If they didn't fight over the accounts that didn't match, they would negotiate which accounts would be accepted and which ones would have to be paid by the previous magistrate. Or they might even promise other benefits!
Zhou Yuntian took the gift list and took a closer look. He was shocked. It contained 5,000 taels of silver, two silver-colored mirrors, five crystal-colored cups, and a crystal-colored rabbit. Apparently, the newly appointed County Magistrate Zhao knew he was born in the Year of the Rabbit and had made these special arrangements.
Before Zhao Xiaokun arrived, Zhao Xiaofei had already paid for his elder brother to hire a lawyer from Jiangyin County. This lawyer wrote down all the information about Jiangyin County, including the zodiac sign of Mr. Zhou Yuntian, his preferences, and his official style, on a piece of paper.
Zhou Yuntian said embarrassedly, "Master Zhao, this gift is too generous! I feel unworthy of accepting it!"
"No, no, no! Master Zhou has studied hard for ten years to reach his current position. It's truly remarkable. I, a naturalized Chinese immigrant, have usurped Master Zhou's position simply because I'm the son-in-law's elder brother. I truly feel guilty about this! So this small gift isn't even considered a token of respect!" Zhao Xiaokun said. He had nothing to hide; he simply spoke directly. He didn't beat around the bush like the Ming Dynasty people did; that was too time-consuming. Furthermore, giving money directly would reduce the chances of Master Zhou secretly sabotaging him.
Zhou Yuntian felt somewhat helpless after hearing Magistrate Zhao's words. He thought, a naturalized person is a naturalized person. He didn't know how to be subtle at all; this was too blunt. Although the benefits he had given him had eased some of his unhappiness, it only made him despise Magistrate Zhao even more. He actually instructed a few clerks to make things difficult for the newly appointed Magistrate. But now it seemed that this was no longer necessary. He couldn't go too far when they were just giving him face and money. He would have to explain this to those people later.
"Since Lord Zhao has made it clear, let's make the situation in Jiangyin County clear. Not only have all the taxes in our county been collected and submitted this year, but we also don't have any deficits. It's just that the flood control embankment needs to be repaired. It has been in disrepair for many years, and for the safety of our county, it still needs to be repaired. In addition, there are no major criminal cases in our county. They are all trivial matters, and the jail is empty!" Zhou Yuntian said proudly. Taxation, civil affairs, and criminal justice are all excellent. In Zhao Xiaokun's opinion, for such a rich county, you can only balance revenue and expenditure. If you don't embezzle the tax surplus, you are a foolish official. If I were an official, I would be embarrassed to say that I have governed well if there are not hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in the county treasury.
In reality, how could Jiangyin County, being so wealthy, not have a fiscal surplus? It was all due to corruption by officials at all levels! If it were any other ordinary county, you'd probably have taken it over and it would have been a mess. The phenomenon of "eating up the next year's food before the current year" existed in many counties during the Ming Dynasty. To put it bluntly, it was a fiscal deficit, and the county government relied on loans to survive. Tax revenue was even mortgaged to local gentry, who then collected taxes on the county government's behalf.
At this moment, three people arrived. Zhou Yuntian introduced them, saying, "These two are my most capable assistants. This is Chen Mingyu, and this is Yan Yingyuan! They are my county's Dianshi. They've taken care of the county's work very well while I was away. They're really reassuring!" He had only missed the other person. Zhou Yuntian's expression was grim, as if he was a little displeased.
Zhao Xiaokun bowed to each of them. Yan Yingyuan was tall and thin, while Chen Mingyu was refined and elegant. Both looked like scholars. Zhou Yuntian said, "Gongchen, Liheng, greetings to Master Zhao!"
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