Chen Xinggui is now almost desperate, and came to Lin Yanchao, just to seek an opportunity and ask Lin Yanchao to help him show him a way out.

At that moment, Chen Xinggui looked up to the sky and sighed: "When I am desperate, Zong Hai can still help me at the expense of embezzling official money." ”

"But the embezzlement of official silver violates the discipline of the imperial court, although I, Chen Xinggui, have no interest, but I will not do this to affect Zonghai. It's not that I'm pedantic, but I can't damage Zonghai's clear hope and come to help me with this. ”

Seeing Chen Xinggui's refusal, Lin Yanchao smiled and said: "It is a big crime to embezzle the warehouse grain, as for the official bank, it is not enough, and this matter is not my temporary idea, but a long plan, even if you don't come to me today, I will find someone else to do it." ”

The embezzlement of grain in the warehouse was a method used by officials in ancient times to generate income, that is, in the year of the catastrophe, when the price of grain was high, they secretly took out the warehouse grain in the warehouse and sold it, and when the price of grain was low, they bought it back.

One high and one low earn a spread.

The misappropriation of grain from the warehouse, if it is detected by the imperial history of the warehouse, is a felony.

As for the embezzlement of official silver, this was a big sin in the Qing Dynasty, but it was not in the Ming Dynasty.

Why?

Because before Zhang Juzheng's whip law, the government mainly collected grain, silk yarn and other physical goods from the government, and the government came to pay for it. As for silver, it is very little.

For example, when Lin Yanchao first arrived in Beijing, some officials and the imperial court still paid in the form of treasure money.

Silver has not been the main means of circulation in the Ming Dynasty, so there is no precedent for misappropriation of official silver. Therefore, the only thing that the imperial court can do is to embezzle the grain in the warehouse, which is a big crime.

Why is it a big sin to embezzle grain? It is not that it is misappropriated without authorization, but because once there is a real disaster year, if the warehouse grain is misappropriated, and the warehouse grain is insufficient, or even there is no grain for disaster relief, this will provoke the people to revolt.

That's why the imperial court was not allowed to embezzle the grain from the warehouse.

Although the Ming Dynasty was very loose in its control over the misappropriation of official silver, official silver could not be circulated among the people. Because there are seals on all official silver, if officials embezzle official silver and take the official money to buy things from the common people privately, the common people will never dare to accept it.

Therefore, when the official silver is used to distribute to the locality, the local yamen must be recast again to erase the imprint.

And now Lin Yanchao's Guanhe Tongzhi Office happens to have the power to recast the official silver.

Although it is said that the Qing Dynasty inherited the Ming system, many rules are different, and they cannot be viewed from the perspective of today's people.

For example, officials collect fire and consume silver, which is called corruption in the Ming Dynasty, but in the Qing Dynasty, it is called raising incorruptible silver.

There is also the embezzlement of official silver, which was not a big crime in the Ming Dynasty, where the financial industry was underdeveloped, but in the Qing Dynasty, which had an official silver number, it was very serious, and this income belonged to the state, and you could not take it if you were an official. However, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, it became the norm for the local government to deposit the official money in the local bank. The red-top businessman Hu Xueyan relied on this method to start his business in his early years.

In history, Emperor Kangxi once issued an edict saying that since I listened to the government, the three feudatories, river affairs, and Cao Yun were the three major events.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were three officials who were the fattest, one was the salt road, one was the river, and the other was the Caoyun, such as Lin Yanchao, who was in charge of the river workers, and the money that passed every year was definitely not a lot of the prefect of a wealthy mansion in the south of the Yangtze River.

Lin Yanchao explained the matter to Chen Xinggui, and Chen Xinggui explained his doubts, and decided to open a money village in Guide Mansion at the moment, and then Lin Yanchao would introduce Yang, Peng, Hou and other local clans to him as a fellow knowledge of the river, and make the money village business bigger.

Of course, in order to hide people's eyes, Lin Yanchao decided to let Chen Xinggui serve as an official in the household of the Tongzhi Bureau, and even planned to make this money village into an official posture.

Although Chen Xinggui agreed, he felt that he couldn't see Lin Yanchao clearly.

He had heard rumors in Suzhou before, saying that Lin Yanchao had sinned the Queen Mother for his admonition and had lost Hanlin, but he refused to lose his official position and sought revenge from the pro-people officials, with the intention of making money.

Looking at Lin Yanchao's eagerness now, it seems that this rumor is somewhat true.

When Lin Yanchao and Chen Xinggui were discussing the matter of Hegongyin, they saw Qiu Mingshan walking into the yamen with a happy face, and said before he entered the main hall: "Dong Weng, good news, good news." ”

Lin Yanchao smiled and said to Chen Xinggui: "This is my subordinate Master Qiu, although he is very shrewd and capable, he has a bad stomach. ”

Chen Xinggui smiled and said, "Then I have to learn a thing or two." ”

After Qiu Mingshan walked into the yamen, Lin Yanchao introduced Qiu Mingshan and Chen Xinggui to each other, and then asked, "What is the happy event of Master Qiu?" ”

Qiu Mingshan glanced at Chen Xinggui, and Lin Yanchao smiled: "This is my childhood friend, I can definitely trust it." ”

Qiu Mingshan nodded and said, "Dong Weng, the happy thing I came to tell you is that the silver of this river worker has been settled. ”

Lin Yanchao and Chen Xinggui glanced at each other, and Lin Yanchao smiled and said, "What does this mean?" The river silver did not fall on the river yamen and the government office. ”

Qiu Mingshan said: "Not to mention that the Su Governor's Mansion and Dong Weng have a bad relationship, even if there is no bad relationship, how can you count on the money of the river Yamen?" It was all leaking through the fingers. ”

Lin Yanchao was surprised, he knew that every time Qian passed through a yamen, he would have to pluck the feathers of the geese, and the urine that was heavily intercepted would not be as serious as Qiu Mingshan.

Lin Yanchao smiled and said to Chen Xinggui: "Mr. Qiu is a person who has a way, listen to what means he has." ”

Qiu Mingshan raised his head and puffed up his chest, and said a little sarcastically: "Dong Weng asked me, it can be regarded as the right person." You must know that in addition to the Yellow River to the northwest and southeast, although the river is along the river, we dare not be careless about the Yellow River embankment. As for the second, there are 12 dry rivers such as the Qing River and the Qin River, which run through the prefectures. ”

"The wadi is built with embankments and ditches, which can irrigate farmland, and it is also a matter of river engineering. Then the people of each county will be more or less unequal. ”

Chen Xinggui was surprised: "Please elaborate on Mr. Qiu." ”

Qiu Mingshan said: "For example, just as there are 100 hectares of land in the east of the river and 300 hectares of land in the west of the river, the money in our hands is only enough to repair a dam, dare to ask how to repair it?" ”

Chen Xinggui said without thinking: "Of course it's Xiuhexi!" ”

"It's a big mistake, it's a big mistake," Qiu Mingshan said with a smile, "We should first send someone to ask the landlords in Hedong and Hexi, which one gives us more money, and we will repair which side." ”

Lin Yanchao and Chen Xinggui glanced at each other, both showing expressions of this kind of operation.

After a pause, Qiu Mingshan said: "But this is not necessarily the case, some squires and wealthy families, who have children who are officials in the court, just don't give money, but they also try their best to repair it, this is another story." ”

Chen Xinggui's face changed when he heard this, but when he saw Qiu Mingshan, he said proudly: "Dong Weng, now there are many landlords who have found me, with money in their pockets, asking me to introduce Dong Weng, is this a big joy, dare to ask when Dong Weng will meet?" ”

Lin Yanchao has not yet spoken.

When Chen Xinggui heard this, he immediately took the case and scolded: "You are really a despicable and shameless person, Zong Hai, why do you use such people as your staff, isn't this an insult to your official reputation?" ”