Chapter 313 314. Retire! Retire!
If Lei Li was 20 or 30 years younger, especially when he was the poorest, let alone a few months, he would be willing to pay for several years as long as the money was in place.
At that time, he wore a pair of straw sandals when crossing mountains and rivers, and he would wear out several pairs of straw sandals a year. He would only wear the cloth shoes made by his mother when he went to the county town.
He dug herbs and picked wild vegetables and fruits to add to the food at home. He washed, cut, prepared and dried the herbs, then rented an ox cart and drove more than ten kilometers along the mountain road to the county town to sell them. He would not let go of any snakes he met on the way.
Now he has no shortage of money, and he has a happy family, harmonious marriage, and successful children. He is at the age to enjoy a peaceful and comfortable life. Why should he work hard outside for others for nothing?
——The salary given by the damn emperor is no different from that of a white-collar worker. His monthly salary is not even as much as the tax paid by a store in Kyoto in a month.
But Zhou Yi convinced him a little.
"Baihui is close to the sea and has the most seafood. If you like seafood, I can cook whatever you want when you come to Baihui."
Perhaps because he was afraid of being poor when he was young and the food he ate was too scarce, Lei Li subconsciously compensated himself after he became rich. In addition, Zhou Yi's cooking skills were getting better and better, and the taste of fresh and high-quality ingredients could be doubled in his hands.
Therefore, one of Lei Li's biggest hobbies in life is to satisfy his appetite.
He loves to eat all kinds of food, especially sweet ones, and he has been eating them since the beginning. Later, Zhou Yi had to keep an eye on him to control his sugar intake to prevent him from suffering from dental disease or diabetes from eating too much sweets.
Although shipping is now well developed and Lei Li is the head of the shipping department, seafood can be delivered expedited if you want it, but it is not as fresh as when it is fresh out of the sea.
Before becoming the Marquis of Changning and no longer having to live in Beijing for a long time, Lei Li and his family traveled all over Dayou and tried all the delicacies from major cities. Among them, the seafood from Baihui was his favorite.
Fortunately, Lei Li is not allergic to seafood, otherwise it would be really frustrating to have delicious food right in front of him but not be able to eat it. After all, severe allergies can be fatal.
While Lei Li was muttering his dissatisfaction with the dog emperor in his heart, he was also looking forward to the seafood. He stood majestically on the deck of the big ship and went to take office facing the river breeze.
Naturally, he was accompanied by Zhou Yi, the new director of the Sihai Division Lei Zhouzhou and Lin Zhong, as well as a group of loyal and ambitious junior officials led by Lei Li.
"The emperor has sent me to Baihui as the governor. I think he's going to pull down another group of people."
Lei Li gazed at the rushing river. The wind blowing from the river was damp. He said, "This seems like they're planning a major reshuffle. They'll replace Bai Hui with their own people, and then clean up the bureaucratic cliques in Kyoto."
"We'll remove a wave of people and promote a wave of people. If the top position is vacant, the middle level will fill it. If the middle level is vacant, the bottom level will fill it. The idle Jinshi of these few years can finally fill it."
Not every new Jinshi is as lucky as Miao Yurui and Shu Ge'er. One entered the Yunliu Department and the other entered the Hanlin Academy, both of which are promising places.
Many people think that passing the imperial examination will lead to promotion, wealth, and rapid advancement in their careers.
Actually not.
When you finally pass the imperial examination and become a Jinshi, you have two choices: to be sent to a distant place or to stay in Kyoto. Either way is not easy for a poor student.
Those who were sent to serve as county magistrates in remote and impoverished counties or those with tough and difficult people were unlikely to make political achievements. They would be unknown county magistrates all their lives. If they did not perform well and could not pass the review, they would be demoted or even dismissed.
It is difficult to climb up the career ladder in Kyoto as a minor official without connections or background. Most of them are mediocre and unknown, and have to give gifts to their superiors during festivals. Without some family wealth, they cannot survive the high prices in Kyoto.
The emperor reshuffled the ranks, and those involved in Baihui's corruption were eliminated. The power in the court was disrupted, and the old group of nobles had to withdraw their tentacles and even cut off their tails to survive like a gecko. Those with real talents and knowledge had the opportunity to fill the position.
The new people who fill this position must be loyal to the emperor, so the emperor can further consolidate power, centralize power and consolidate his dictatorship.
only……
Every time the dog emperor wants to reshuffle the cards, he lets the Changning Marquisate take the lead. If looks could kill, Lei Li would have died hundreds or thousands of times.
"Don't overthink it."
Zhou Yi held Lei Li's hand and said, "In a few years, the emperor will probably appoint a crown prince. Then we can retire and return to Sanlihe Village."
"As my parents get older, they miss their grandparents more and more. They only stay in Beijing because they can't bear to leave us. It's a good opportunity to take them back to spend their remaining years in Beijing."
"good."
Lei Li nodded. "By then, Sheng Jiang and Zhou Zhou will have established themselves and won't need us to support them. Send Mom and Dad back to Sanluhe Village to stay with them for a while, and then we can go explore other prefectures."
"Since I came to Kyoto, I've either been running around or stuck in Kyoto. I've almost forgotten what it's like to travel."
"I haven't seen Sister Hua'er for many years. Her two children should have grown up and started their own families. When we go to Qingyuan, we'll stay at Sister Hua'er's for a few days, then go to Zhongchuan to see if Mengluo is there, and then go..."
Lei Li was muttering about his retirement travel plan. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that it was a waste of time to quarrel with those old men from aristocratic families in Kyoto over the past few years.
What's the point of winning the argument? If he hadn't come to Beijing to work for the dog emperor, he wouldn't have had to waste his breath arguing.
Lei Li did not want to be the Marquis of Changning. If he was a vain person, after he had the capital from cooperating with the Meng family, he should have worked on his own to make the business bigger and stronger instead of just taking a share of the profits every year.
It is much better to make a fortune just lying at home than to work hard in public, not to mention the intrigues and deceptions in Beijing, which really makes Lei Li tired.
—
Taking a boat from Beijing to Baihui was a simple matter of following the current, and the governor's boat arrived in Baihui in less than half a month.
Lei Li was anxious to retire and was feeling irritable. He was too lazy to waste time talking to officials like Bai Hui, so he started by giving them a severe show of force, which enhanced the governor's prestige to its fullest extent.
All the officials in Baihui knew that someone not easy to deal with had come, but Lei Li was a brother, and there were always some who looked down on him because of his gender. This was Lei Li's breakthrough point.
Lei Li and Zhou Yi are already old partners. With Zhou Yi's knowledge base and Lei Li's insidiousness, they can successfully sow discord among them with a little trick, and then defeat them one by one.
For those who are easily shaken, he would use threats and inducements in private; for those who are arrogant and domineering, he would have people search the streets and secretly collect evidence.
For those who acted cautiously, he would ignore all the government affairs that they had concealed, as if they were here for tourism, eating, drinking and having fun every day, and even happily camping and barbecued with Zhou Yi.
The gorgeous and beautiful sunset, the sparkling sea, the salty sea breeze gently blew Lei Li's hair, which he tucked behind his ears. He lay comfortably on the lounge chair, drinking coconut milk, waiting for Zhou Yi to grill the seafood and bring it to his mouth.
The sea at night is also quiet and beautiful.
The deep blue sky is full of shining stars and the moon is bright. The bright moon is reflected on the sea. The waves come in waves, rolling out waves like snow piles.
The night is cool.
Lei Li and Zhou Yi built a tent on the beach and slept all night listening to the white noise of the waves.
The next morning, the two men did not even go to the government office. They concealed their identities and said that they were from outsiders and had never been to sea. They followed the fishermen on the beach to fish.
In the end, they harvested a lot and got a good price. The happy fisherman invited the two to his home for dinner, and Lei Li and his wife actually went to his home for dinner.
The local magistrate, who received the news a little late, came to greet them, and the fisherman only then realized that one of them was the governor and the other was the governor's wife.
"A man is a lady..."
The frightened old fisherman quickly knelt down and kowtowed. His young son was still in a daze, looking at Zhou Yi's tall and burly figure, and subconsciously muttered this sentence.
His parents were so frightened that they almost lost their souls. They hurriedly pulled him to his knees and begged for mercy, fearing that he would offend the noble and have their entire family beheaded.
"Please get up quickly, please get up quickly."
Lei Li said as he and Zhou Yi each helped another person up. "I'm on a secret visit. Your ignorance is innocent. My wife is indeed a man. Nowadays, men and women can take the imperial examinations just like men. It shouldn't be uncommon for men to become wives or concubines in the future."
These words frightened the fisherman. Even the county magistrate and the officials he brought with him broke out in cold sweats, thinking that the governor was so bold in his words that it was no wonder he was disliked by the officials in Kyoto.
As the saying goes, good news doesn't travel far, but bad news travels a thousand miles.
When Lei Li was on his way to Baihui after becoming the governor, the officials of Baihui secretly collected a lot of information about him. His deeds in Beijing were well known to everyone in the bureaucratic circle of Baihui.
certainly.
This is a well-known fact that must have been "artistically processed" and the parts that are spread by rumors are not positive images anyway.
There are also people who have a particularly good conspiracy theory mentality, thinking that Lei Lifufu had offended too many people in Beijing and could no longer stay there, so the emperor sent him to Baihui in the name of governor to avoid the limelight.
——After all, Lei Li's way of eating, drinking, having fun and playing around in the world is, in a certain sense, a bit like finding joy in suffering, like Su Dongpo who ate wherever he was demoted and even gained experience and created his own dishes through eating.
Lei Li didn't care what these officials thought. As long as they took a penny and he found evidence, he would take it all away.
At this time, Lei Li smiled, very kind and amiable, but also a little boastful, "To be honest, the top scorer of this year's exam is a boy, and my family's ancestors are so proud of it. This is the top scorer for my boy——"
"It's my home."
"My Yurui has been married for many years, but I didn't expect that she would get a large six yuan after taking a casual test. Do you know what a large six yuan is?"
“No, I don’t know…”
The fisherman's family was stunned. In the village, passing the imperial examination to become a scholar was considered a top honor. They had no idea that there was an exam above the scholar level and what the "big six yuan" meant.
"Whether it's taking the examinations for Tongsheng, Xiucai, Juren, or Jinshi in front of His Majesty, he always comes first!"
Seeing that both the fisherman and the official were shocked, Lei Li felt quite smug, yet pretended to be modest.
"It's not a big deal, actually. My Yu Rui is just a little better than all the educated men in the world."
He added, "I see your little granddaughter is very clever. If she has the opportunity to study and learn to write, she might even become the top scorer in the imperial examinations in the future!"
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