Chapter 33 Old Magistrate, New Magistrate

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Build high walls, store up food, and slowly claim the throne. ——Zhu Sheng.

This is the strategy Zhu Sheng offered to Zhu Yuanzhang during the period of hegemony among the heroes at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. In the words of later online articles, it is "farming".

Many people in later generations do not like farming articles. They want to read passionate articles that start with fighting and killing. But the previous life was just a novel, and now Chen Ming has to face reality. He can't even control the small Chen family now, what can he use to rebel?

Build high walls, store up food, and slowly claim the throne.

Zhu Sheng's words have great truth and significance at any time. What Chen Ming is doing now is actually these three sentences. Under his promotion, the Chen family began to build villages deep in the Funiushan Mountains, began to make guns and cannons in the mountains, and began to hoard food and materials, instead of letting the white silver lie dead in their own cellars.

The two-jin cannon in Qingfeng Village flew a full 580 meters, which was beyond Chen Ming's imagination. Although this distance was due to the height of Qingfeng Village, the cannon fired on the ground should be at least 300 meters, right?

What else is Chen Ming dissatisfied with with such a small two-jin cannon?

As the last retreat of the Chen family, Qingfeng Village has now stored more than a thousand dan of grain and beans. In addition to the 40-man Chen family servants, hundreds of craftsmen and their families, there are also hundreds of farmers. These people are refugees recruited by the Chen family last winter.

In the 28th year of Qianlong, the Yellow River broke its dikes in 15 places in Henan Province and flowed to the Jialu River. 52 counties and prefectures in the province were affected. The river broke in Caozhou, Shandong, and the whole township and other 5 counties were flooded; Anhui suffered serious floods; more than 20 counties and prefectures in Shanxi suffered floods, the Fen River broke its dikes, and the Danqin water level rose.

Although two years have passed, there are still many refugees. If it weren't for the sake of confidentiality, the Chen family could have recruited ten times more people.

These refugees of a few hundred people were all skilled. It was too late for the Chen family to take action. The flood had been over for nearly two years, and many people had returned to their hometowns. Those refugees with skills had already been recruited by people with good skills. The refugees that the Chen family got had no other job but to work and farm. The biggest task for these twenty or so refugees in Qingfeng Village was farming. The land on both sides of the river valley at the foot of the mountain where Qingfeng Village was located was quite fertile. The area of ​​the village was limited, and at most a few vegetables could be planted in front of and behind the houses. If you wanted to be self-reliant, you had to use the land in the river valley. The families of the craftsmen who wanted to farm could also apply. As long as you can grow it, you can go and open up wasteland.

There were a total of about 200 people in the entire Qingfeng Village, and the Chen family brought in some livestock. If the management was good, and the population did not increase much, food would at least be self-sufficient in two years.

Among the four villages of the Chen family in Funiu Mountain, except for Tiezhai, which has a special meaning, there is no such thing as farming. The other three villages: Qingfengzhai, Hutouzhai, and Niutouzhai are of similar size and are all farming. The only difference is the intention.

Qingfengzhai can not only cast guns and cannons, but also store a large amount of food and gunpowder, cloth, medicinal materials, salt, etc. It can be said that this is the final base prepared by the Chen family for themselves. Hutouzhai and Niutouzhai are two shields prepared for the future. These two villages are strong and can withstand, and to put it bluntly, they are the best at fighting. Their task is to be the firewall of Qingfengzhai.

Each village also has more than 200 people. Except for 50 servants, the rest are all farmers. After two years, the food here may be self-sufficient, but the medicinal materials, cloth, ironware, salt and other necessities of life all depend on the support of the Chen family. Moreover, the servants of Hutouzhai and Niutouzhai are replaced once a month. They are different from the servants of Qingfeng Village. Among the forty people in the latter, at least ten are descendants of the Chen family. These people may not have the surname Chen, but their entire families are firmly tied to the Chen family.

This time, Chen Ming visited four villages and two private mines, and stayed in Xiaonangou for more than half a month. He finally got the glass out, but the transparency needs to be improved. Time passed May unknowingly and came to June.

"Master, Yue Wenhai has sealed the seal and everything is ready. Master has been busy for a long time, and finally he can relax. Just waiting for the new county magistrate to take office."

"Did Yue Wenhai smooth out the account book?"

"Master spent a lot of effort. The main reason is that Yue Wenhai prepared early. He is a man who knows how to be an official. He was well prepared, so he was not panicked when faced with things. Although it took Master half a month, the account book is clear."

From late May to early June, Chen Hui's biggest concern was no longer the Ruzhou incident that could not be traced, but how to smooth out the deficit in the county. As the head of the most lucrative household in the six rooms, Chen Hui had to be involved in it, and he was busy for half a month with the three masters above the level of Master Yue Wenhai.

"Who is the new county magistrate? Is there any news?"

"The master has also inquired about this matter. There is no news at all."

"You don't know anything about Yue Wenhai?" Chen Ming's cheap father is very kind to Yue Wenhai and is ready to give Yue Wenhai a gift of 100 taels when he leaves office.

"The master said that if Yue Wenhai had the ability to know the news earlier, he would not be a county magistrate after his next term."

Chen Ming was silent for a long time. What his father said made sense. Although Yue Wenhai looked very impressive when he was sitting in the Lushan County Office, he was just a small shrimp in the Qing Dynasty officialdom. Before coming to Lushan, Yue Wenhai had been a county magistrate. He had been the county magistrate of Lushan County for two consecutive terms. Now he is still a county magistrate for the fourth term. His background in the officialdom can be imagined.

Chen Ming can only pray to God that the next Lushan County magistrate is a rule-abiding person, otherwise... things will be hard to say. The household office is a very sensitive position, especially when the previous and next officials are handed over. It is more eye-catching than the position of the director of the Finance Bureau in later generations. Because of the rules and unspoken rules of the current Qing Dynasty court, officials have the meaning of "sweeping the snow in front of their own door" for the account books and deficits when they take over.

In my Qing Dynasty, the content, procedures and relevant regulations of the transfer and audit of officials after leaving office are richer and more detailed than those in previous dynasties. To summarize, there are the following points: All transfer audits of financial affairs such as money and grain warehouses must be completed within two months, "the old official must prepare the book within 20 days, and the new official must check and transfer within 40 days"; "the warehouse grain is more than 50,000 shi, and the money and grain is more than 50,000 liang, the deadline is extended to one month; more than 100,000 liang, the deadline is extended to two months", and so on. In the textbooks of officialdom in the Qing Dynasty, the audit of the predecessor's account books is the first task that the new official must start immediately after taking office.

After the new official completes the takeover audit, he must "make a book" within the prescribed period, that is, issue multiple copies of the certificate of the old official's departure and transfer, and after signing and stamping one by one, submit it to the superior prefecture. The superior prefecture should send personnel to verify that it is correct within five days after the document arrives, stamp it, and submit it to the channel for further inspection, and submit it to the governor and governor-general at the same time, and finally submit it to the Ministry of Revenue for storage and inspection. In order to prevent dereliction of duty and fraud during on-site supervision and review, the current Emperor Qianlong has added regulations to the provincial authorities: the prefectures and counties should explain clearly, and when they send the settlement to the Ministry, the names of the supervisors should be sent to the Ministry for record. If problems are found, such as a shortage of money and grain, and the supervisors are biased and order to accept the money, the governor must report it truthfully.

Every household clerk will be deeply involved in such things. If the handover is smooth, it's fine. If the new county magistrate insists on being serious and picking bones in the "egg", how can even an old bird like Yue Wenhai not leak anything? In that case, what will Chen Hui look like in the new county magistrate's mind?