Guan Qiuli said, "Xiaoshengzi, then you can interpret this account book in detail, what do these pigs, cows and sheep mean?" ”

Xiao Shengzi took the account book, turned to Yang Huairen, and then pointed to those pictures to explain to Yang Huairen one by one.

"Lord, please see, at the top of each page of the ledger, the year and month are recorded here. Year, Zhao Xianqiu is replaced by the zodiac, for example, this year is the Year of the Pig, and a pig's head will be drawn, and next year will be the Year of the Rat, and a mouse will be drawn.

Month, use the month to do common flowers instead, for example, last month's opening planning, he will draw osmanthus on behalf of August, this month to bloom chrysanthemums, on behalf of September. ”

"Oh," Yang Huairen said with a smile, "I see, listening to your explanation, this account book can be read and understood, Zhao Xianqiu, this old boy is quite smart, it doesn't matter if he doesn't know how to read, he can draw and keep accounts, haha." ”

Guan Qiuli also shook his head and smiled, "Zhao Xianqiu served the emperor in the palace when he was young, and our officials in the Great Song Dynasty can draw a few strokes, he doesn't know much characters, but he has learned some painting skills." ”

Yang Huairen nodded, thinking that this matter was interesting, but he then pointed to the picture below and asked, "What about these?" How can there be pigs here? What about those fish, shrimp and crabs next to it? You go on to say. ”

Xiao Shengzi continued to interpret the following, "Lord Wang, please see, this page records the benefits he gave to local officials, and this kind of benefit is generally given once a year, in order to make those local officials turn a blind eye and not interfere with the bad things that Zhao Xianqiu did."

The pig in front of him refers to Lord Zhu of Luwan Port in Zhenzhou, and this cow refers to Lord Liu of Taizhou, because Liu is not good at drawing, so he uses the pattern of a homophonic cow instead, anyway, he understands it at a glance, and it will not be wrong.

The lotus tweed below refers to the Yangzhou commander He Cunbao He Lord, and it is also a homonym, and the lotus flower replaces the surname of the adult.

The fish, shrimp and crabs painted after each person's name are the specific amount of benefits that Zhao Xianqiu gave them, and a fish refers to a goldfish, that is, a large gold bar of fifty taels, which is five hundred taels of silver.

The shrimp refers to a small gold bar, ten taels of one, representing one hundred taels of silver.

And the crab does not refer to the specific amount, but means that the official has a handle in Zhao Xianqiu's hand, it should be that Zhao Xianqiu feels that the crab's big claws clamp nothing down, which just means that he has clamped the lifeblood of these officials. ”

After listening to Xiao Shengzi's explanation, Yang Huairen immediately understood the account book, and he translated it casually, "Oh, so that's the case, this year, Lord Zhu received 1,000 taels from Zhao Xianqiu, 600 taels from Lord Liu, and 1,500 ......taels from Master He."

In the first nine months of this year alone, in Yangzhou, the surrounding areas of Yangzhou, and some prefectures and counties along the canal that had close ties with Caoyun Yamen, more than 30 officials of various types received the benefits of Zhao Xianqiu, with a total value of about 20,000 taels of silver.

In fact, for Yang Huairen, more than 20,000 taels of silver is really not a large amount in Jiangnan, the richest place in the Great Song Dynasty, and I also thought that some officials just didn't dare to go against Zhao Xianqiu, so they symbolically accepted his money and were forced to tie him to a rope.

What made him angry was that more than a dozen officials had crabs drawn behind them, which showed that they themselves had done something unseemly, and Zhao Xianqiu knew about it and caught their handle.

Yang Huairen sighed in his heart, reader, how high-spirited he was when he was in the cold window for ten years, and he was conceited that he would be honest and honest in the future after becoming an official on the gold list, but later, he was polluted by officialdom.

It's okay to accept bribes for personal gain, at least you didn't directly hurt the people, but these tricks that were caught by Zhao Xianqiu, you don't have to think about it, you know that they must be some dirty things they did.

Just like Zhao Xianqiu's mansion outside Xicheng, there are so many singers and oirans in the Goolan brothel in it, which is probably the place that Zhao Xianqiu used to confuse these officials.

When they get on the thief ship, Zhao Xianqiu will use these to control them and hold up a protective umbrella for his own chain of wealth and interests.

Yang Huairen didn't bother to look at who was tied to the thief ship by Zhao Xianqiu, and pointed to the stack of papers on the table and asked, "What about these?" ”

Xiao Shengzi took it and explained to Yang Huairen one by one, "These are the account book records of Zhao Xianqiu's entry, because Zhao Xianqiu guarded the entry account book very strictly and watched it more closely, so Xiao Shengzi couldn't record it all, only recorded some sporadically and secretly, and he didn't have time to sort it out."

For example, in this one, the pig painted above refers to Zhao Xianqiu's godson Zhao Bin looking for Yu Hou, who led a team of Cao troops to hide in a place called Huangtoubo in the north.

But what they did was not what the Cao army should do, they did not protect the safety of the passing merchant ships on the Grand Canal, but disguised themselves as bandits and collected tolls from passing merchant ships.

Zhao Xianqiu is very insidious, those Jiangnan merchants who need to use the Grand Canal to transport goods must send him a sum of money every year, if anyone dares not to send or send less, he will order Zhao Bin to rob these merchant ships.

The big businessmen didn't dare to offend him, so they had to send him enough silver every year, but those small merchants couldn't afford to give this peace money at all, so it was often their gang that suffered. ”

Yang Huairen generally looked at the income related to Zhao Bin, and then glanced at Guan Qiuli, and said in his heart that Zhao Bin is also a fool, Zhao Xianqiu's account wrote that he received more than 12,000 yuan in the fifth, sixth, and seventh months, and the benefits to Zhao Bin and the helpers were only 500 yuan.

Thinking of this, it matched the confession of Zhao Bin's side, indicating that Zhao Bin's kid was just a tool used by Zhao Xianqiu to help collect money, Zhao Bin led people to rob so much money and goods, and finally the benefits in their hands were not even half enough.

It's like sending a dog, Zhao Bin also affectionately called Zhao Xianqiu's godfather one by one, and gave him his life, I really don't know if these people are really stupid or they are stupid pigs.

The next one is actually evidence that Huang Million and Bai Yinhai gave Zhao Xianqiu benefits when they were rich this year, because Yang Huairen saw that the style of a rice warehouse was drawn on it, which should represent the rice merchant Huang Million, and the other picture like a salt pile represents the salt merchant Bai Yinhai.

Behind the figure representing the two people, the specific amount is also clearly drawn there, a big fish, calculated according to the big fish is ten times that of the small fish, and the sum is exactly the 75,000 taels of snowflake silver that disappeared after the yellow and white people became rich.