Xia Yan is a public person, a person from Guixi County, Jiangxi, who is nearly forty this year, and can be regarded as Xu Jin's predecessor in terms of age and official age. Xia Yan has always admired and admired Xu Jin, a fellow descendant, after all, not everyone has the courage to propose Qingtianzhuang, and Xu Jin not only mentioned, but also was not afraid of power, directly overthrew the most prominent relative Zhang family, and vigorously re-cleared the land around Jingshi, so that the country increased the land by nearly 100,000 hectares.

100,000 hectares of land is not a small amount, not to mention that only the area of Beizhili has cleared out 100,000 hectares of land, which makes Xia Yan see the reversal of the national financial dilemma and the signing of Zhongxing Daming.

Therefore, Xia Yan followed Xu Jin to the south to patrol Nanzhili and Zhejiang this time, full of passion and eagerness, ready to show his strength to re-clear the land of the two provinces, add more land for the Ming Dynasty, and increase the tax revenue of the treasury.

However, Xu Jin's performance in Yangzhou made Xia Yan very disappointed, and even angry, Xu Jin accepted the reception banquet of the magistrate last night, after all, this is a normal human relationship, blameless, but Xu Jin blatantly accepted bribes from the magistrate today, which naturally made the upright Lord Xia very annoyed.

In fact, Xia Yan had already come to Xu Jin once this morning, and it happened that Xu Jin was not there, so Xia Yan could only leave angrily, and went to the government office with more than a dozen clerks from the household department, asking the officials to take out the yellow book and fish scale atlas of Yangzhou Mansion to check, and began to prepare to re-clear the land of Yangzhou Mansion.

It is worth mentioning here that the yellow book of household registration and the land scale atlas of the Ming Dynasty were in quadruplicate, one copy was archived in the household department, and in addition, one copy was kept by the provincial envoys, the government offices and the county offices. Xu Jin and Xia Yan were ordered to supervise the land affairs of Zhizhejiang and Zhejiang this time, so they naturally did not bring out the information archived by the household department, but waited until they arrived at the place to collect local materials.

However, Xia Yan went to the Yangzhou Mansion today to ask for the yellow book and the fish scale atlas, but those officials prevaricated for various reasons, one saying that the chief official in charge was out and did not have the key to the treasury, and the other saying that the fire had damaged part of it, and that it had not had time to re-record it......

As a result, Xia Yan was hung in the mansion for most of the day, but in the end he still didn't get the yellow book and the fish scale atlas, and Lord Xia, who was angry, returned to his residence and asked Xu Jin if he had returned, so he hurriedly came to the door angrily.

"Lord Xu, do you still remember the purpose of this envoy?" When Xia Yan saw Xu Jinying coming out, he immediately flicked his sleeves and stood in the courtyard and asked angrily.

Xu Jin arched his hand and said calmly: "Why did Lord Xia say this? This time, this official was ordered to patrol Zhizhejiang and preside over the field affairs of the two provinces of Qingzhang, how could he forget. ”

Xia Yan's expression was a little gloomy, and he said in a deep voice: "In this case, why did Lord Xu go to Yangzhou but have a vegetarian meal and unscrupulously accept gifts from local officials. ”

Xu Jin smiled and said, "Lord Xia, don't be impatient, come in and talk about it!" ”

Xia Yan flicked his sleeves and walked the hall proudly, he was not worried that Xu Jin would be unfavorable to him, not to mention, if Xu Jin wanted to kill him, it would not be easy, now the entire mansion was under the control of the five hundred battalions, and it made no difference whether he could enter the hall or not.

Xia Yan entered the hall and couldn't help but be slightly stunned when he saw the two twins kneeling on the ground. Xu Jin didn't expect these two girls to be kneeling, and coughed lightly: "Let's all get up, don't take it as an example, in early summer, go make a pot of tea." ”

It is said that the two girls in the early spring and early summer were originally trained by the Duke of Wei, and they were used to being cautious, but when they arrived at the relaxed environment of the Xu Mansion, they began to be "presumptuous", and they were reprimanded by Xu Jin just now, and the two little cabbages were scared, so without Xu Jin's consent, they knelt and did not dare to get up.

At this time, hearing Xu Jin's order, the two girls breathed a sigh of relief, and stood up to make tea with red circles in early summer, and stood meekly aside in early spring.

It is normal for a servant to make a mistake and be punished by the master's family, Xia Yan didn't feel strange, and sat down at the coffee table with a calm face, waiting for Xu Jin to give him a reasonable explanation. In fact, in Xia Yan's view, Xu Jin is not the kind of person who is greedy for money, otherwise how would he risk the disapproval of the world, first advocate Qingtianzhuang, and even do not hesitate to offend the noble officials and gentry of the Manchu Dynasty and re-clear the land in the Jingshi.

"In early summer, give the gift list you received today to Lord Xia." Xu Jin commanded.

"Yes, sir!" Chu Chun said crisply and presented an account book to Xia Yan, which recorded all the names of the gentry who came to give gifts today, as well as the gifts they had given.

Xia Yan took the account book suspiciously and opened it, and gasped, in just one day, there were more than 100 local gentry who gave gifts recorded in the book, with a total value of 120,000 taels of silver, which was undoubtedly a huge amount of money.

Xu Jin smiled and teased: "Three years of Qing prefect, 100,000 snowflakes of silver, I only went to Yangzhou in one day to make 120,000 taels of silver, it can be seen that this Yangzhou is indeed a prosperous land of gold dust, and the extent to which the local gentry are rich can be imagined." ”

At this time, Chu Xia had already made a pot of tea and came in, pouted slightly and poured a cup of tea for Xu Jin and Xia Yan, and then retreated to her sister's side.

Xia Yan's expression changed, and he was a little unsure of Xu Jin's true intention to show him this account book!

"It is estimated that there will be officials and gentry coming to the door to give gifts in the next few days, Lord Xia doesn't have to rush to clear the land, when the list is finalized, Lord Xu will go according to the list one by one, wouldn't it be troublesome?" Xu Jin said with a smile while drinking tea.

Xia Yan gasped again, he had to admire Xu Jin's cleverness, those officials and gentry who came to give gifts were definitely not clean, the more money and silver they sent, the more illegal occupation of hidden fields at home, and then according to this list of gifts, they could be targeted to clear the land, which was definitely accurate, and it could also have a deterrent effect of killing chickens and setting an example for monkeys.

Pity the local gentry who gave gifts, they must have thought that they could sit back and relax after receiving the gifts, but who knew that they threw themselves into the net and lost both money and land.

Xia Yan swallowed his saliva hard, and his gaze at Xu Jin also changed, this son does not play cards according to common sense, strange and changeable, but it is similar to the new Bowang Shouren, no wonder Wuding Hou Lixun and his relatives Zhang Jia have been deflated in his hands, this time, the local gentry in Yangzhou are afraid that they will be miserable.

"Lord Xu, what about the money and silver sent by these officials?" The anger on Xia Yan's face was gone, and it was replaced by a hint of respect.

Xu Jin said lightly: "Lord Xia must be clear, now the treasury is tight, last year Lord Chen Jiuchou patrolled Gansu and only brought 500 horses, thinking that I am a great Ming, how majestic it was at the beginning of the founding of the country, where the army came, Di Yi was invincible, and now it has fallen to this, how sad!" ”

Xia Yan sighed: "What Lord Xu said is very true, now my Ming treasury is empty, and even the food and salary of the garrison in the border town are about to be distributed, and it will inevitably endanger my Ming Guozuo in the long run. Lord Xu is a person of insight, and the lower officials should encourage him with Lord Xu. ”

Xu Jin really wanted to tell Xia Yan that there are many ways to increase the revenue of the treasury, and you don't always have to stare at Futian, in fact, opening the sea ban and interconnecting trade is also a shortcut to strengthening the country and enriching the people, but now you may not be able to listen to these Xia Yan, not to mention that there is no opportunity to open the sea ban now, let's take it step by step, first do a good job of Qingzhang land, improve the financial situation of the Ming Dynasty, and then seek to open the sea ban, after all, it is easy to get the egg when the step is big.

"We went to Jiangnan this time, the number of people is close to 1,000, people eat horses and feed, all kinds of supplies, spend a lot of money every day, and the silver received is used as daily expenses, but it is saved from the household department to allocate, and the rest will be handed over to the treasury after returning to Beijing." Xu Jin said while drinking tea.

Although Xia Yan is an upright person, he is not an old-fashioned official who does not know how to be flexible, otherwise he would not advocate Qingtianzhuang, and nodded when he heard this: "It's all up to Lord Xu, Meng Lang was born before the official, and I apologize to Lord Xu here!" ”

Xu Jin smiled and said: "Lord Xia doesn't have to be like this, there is an old saying, using copper as a mirror can be dressed, using ancient as a mirror can know the rise and fall, and taking people as a mirror can see the gains and losses." The emperor used Lord Xia as his deputy envoy this time to set up a mirror for his own government. If the official has done something inappropriate, I hope that Lord Xia will live up to it. ”

Xia Yan's face was hot, and he hurriedly said: "Lord Xu has an overreputation, Xia Yan is ashamed, as long as Lord Xu does not dislike it, the lower officials will definitely do their best to help the adults." ”

In fact, Xia Yan knew very well that the reason why he was fortunate to become the deputy envoy of the Qincha this time was not that the emperor took a fancy to him at all, but that Xu Jin took the initiative to serve as the deputy envoy.

At this moment, Xia Yan actually gave birth to a feeling of the death of a confidant, of course, this description may be a bit excessive, but Lord Xia is indeed very excited at the moment, and he is full of energy, and it is undoubtedly an extremely pleasant thing to be affirmed and valued by others.

"Although Lord Xu has a clear conscience, this matter is also easy to be criticized, and I don't know if there is a way to deal with it?" Xia Yan asked, being able to ask this question, it can be seen that Xia Yan is really thinking about Xu Jin, the Shangguan, at the moment.

Xu Jin smiled and said: "At that time, when the land is cleared, the official will issue a letter to reprimand the gentry who gave the gift for illegally offering bribes, and all the money and silver collected will be confiscated as a punishment!" ”

Xia Yan couldn't help but be speechless, if it wasn't for personal contact, he really couldn't believe that a young guy who was less than twenty years old would be so "treacherous and cunning", and he felt that his seven or eight years of officialdom were in vain.

It is worth mentioning here that Xia Yan is a jinshi in Zhengde for 12 years, and if you calculate carefully, it will only be about seven years to enter the officialdom.

Next, the two chatted deeply for most of the hour, and their relationship with each other became closer, until it was almost dark, and Xia Yan left the courtyard happily.