At this time, there were enough people, so Han Zong and Zheng Jian were not in a hurry to interrogate the criminals, but sent officials to check the accounts in each treasury. The main business of the goods is to exchange and cash money, and there is not much tea in the store, so it is not troublesome to check.

According to the system, at this time, each warehouse has a clerk who takes care of the warehouse, and is in charge of the income and expenditure ledger of each warehouse, and all the entry and exit of a thing is required to be registered immediately. However, because the audit is not strict, many times it is not registered immediately, which leaves room for operation. Another at this time in the locality, such as the Ying Division of the general judgment and management, has already promoted the "four-pillar accounting method" that later generations said, but these Beijing warehouses have not been implemented, or the "three-pillar method" is still used, missing the old management.

Such accounts are not familiar old officials, and it is difficult to sort them out.

What Zheng Jian's Gou Yuan did was to audit and check the accounts, and he brought more than a dozen public officials over for this matter.

The official of the Gouyuan took the Xiang army under the three divisions to the warehouses to check the accounts, Han Zong and Zheng Jian were assigned, and the two of them re-seated in the official hall, and ordered to call the head of the goods on duty today and the capital library in charge of the tea warehouse.

Watching the soldiers lead the order out, Zheng Jian said to Han Zong: "After receiving Zhongwen's handwriting, I knew that the matter was important, and when I came, I informed Yang Daozhi of the Grinding and Investigation Division, and sent someone to the Treasury Department and asked them to send someone there." ”

When Han Zong heard this, he frowned slightly, but he didn't say anything, just said, "Tianxiu has thought it through." ”

The audit is the Gou Yuan and the Grinding and Exploration Division, which is nothing, in the end it is under the control of the three divisions. However, Zheng Jian asked Tiju to send someone to the Treasury Department of the Beijing Departments, which made Han Zong a little displeased.

These places are said to be under the management of the three divisions, but the affairs of the three divisions are too many and too complicated, and they really can't take care of them. The Treasury Division is independent of the three divisions, and even the accounts of the Inner Treasury are not even clear to the Government Council. Originally, the Treasury Department was only responsible for reviewing the accounts of the treasurers and supervising the officials in charge, but as time passed, it gradually began to interfere in the appointment, dismissal, rewards and punishments of these treasurers, and the punishment below the staff could be directly determined. In other words, the authority of the Treasury Department in these workshops tends to be higher than that of the three divisions.

The matter was still not clear, and it was not clear what was going on, so Zheng Jian first called a bunch of people from various yamen to come, for fear that the matter would not be too big. If it is found out in the end that there is no major matter, but the petty officials in the goods service abuse their powers, it will be so embarrassing, and it seems that the people of the three divisions have no rules and regulations.

Zheng Jian didn't pay attention to Han Zong's face, and said to him: "Zhongwen, you said that we should go and inform Deputy Envoy Xu to see what he has to say." Otherwise, we will be arbitrary and not look good in hindsight. ”

"Not necessarily!" Han Zong flatly refused. "Tianxiu, when I was in Yongzhou, I served as the deputy of Deputy Envoy Xu for many years, and I knew that the deputy envoy was a person. At present, the matter is not beyond our authority, so we can just make our own decisions and write a detailed letter to the deputy envoy afterwards. Deputy Envoy Xu doesn't like his subordinates to report everything in detail, and he must be able to take charge of his subordinates. ”

Han Zong is a subordinate brought by Xu Ping from Yongzhou, since he said so, what else can Zheng Jian say?

As the third place in the first class in the second year of Tiansheng, Zheng Jian's official position is not as high as Han Zonggao, who has not entered the first-class jinshi in the eighth year of Tiansheng, so he was promoted smoothly. has followed Xu Ping for more than three years, and Han Zong's official promotion in the past three years is equivalent to more than ten years of work for others, and it is precisely because of this that he will carry out Xu Ping's orders without discount.

The soldiers took the chief of the goods and the capital treasury who took care of the tea warehouse into the official hall and reported to Han Zong and Zheng Jian.

Han Zong saw that the person in charge of the cargo business was in his fifties, his eyes were calm, his expression was introverted, and he looked calm and unhurried from the inside out. Knowing that this is a veteran who has been in the public for decades, it must not be easy to deal with.

The Duku Sutra is much older, the beard and hair are gray, and the eyes are a little cloudy. As soon as he entered the door, he habitually wore a flattering smile on his face, and his whole body was full of oily and obscene atmosphere.

Judging from their appearance alone, one of the two is a capable official and the other is a slippery official, and they really have the characteristics of the little officials. These two kinds of people are the most troublesome for officials, and it is difficult to grasp them, and it is even more difficult to deal with them.

The supervisors who manage these field affairs are usually appointed by the three divisions, because there is a lot of oil and water, which is a fat shortage in the eyes of the children of the powerful in the capital, and the deputy envoys of the three divisions have been surrounded by people from all walks of life to ask for these positions from the previous term. Now the person in charge of cargo affairs is still appointed by Ren Bu when he was in office, and Xu Ping has never been replaced since he took office.

Knowing that the prison official who was not there today was just a straw bale to get oil and water, Han Zong and Zheng Jian didn't plan to call him at all, they just took their subordinate officials to ask about things.

Two officials came up and saluted, and stood still.

Han Zong asked in a deep voice: "From today onwards, the imperial court will be suspended, and all yamen will not deal with official affairs, why do you have someone here to carry tea outside?" Don't hide it, invite it from the truth, otherwise you will inevitably suffer from flesh and skin! ”

The director calmly replied: "Your Excellency, yesterday 'Zhu' Ji handed over someone to the shop to change tea, because it was late when I came, and it was inconvenient to remember the account books. It was a small discussion with a few principals, asking them to come back early this morning and carry tea early. ”

"Nonsense! Every day, the staff must be ready, and the account books are sealed, and no one is allowed to come in! How can there be someone who has checked the citation, but it is inconvenient to send tea and keep accounts? ”

Zheng Jian slapped the case a few times and asked sharply.

The principal said: "According to the regulations, it should be so. However, the officials in the yamen have been doing these things for decades, and it is inevitable that they will slack off as time goes by, and sometimes there are always people who do not follow the rules. ”

Zheng Jian just sneered, he didn't believe a word of what the main person said.

uses his power to obtain personal gain, and when something happens, he will turn a big thing into a small one, and Zheng Jian will not know this routine.

Looking at the Dukujing who had been standing there stupidly, Zheng Jian asked him: "You are in charge of the tea warehouse, without you opening the door and keeping accounts here, no one can move the tea." It's supposed to be closed since yesterday, why would you want to come back today? ”

Du Kujing looked a little embarrassed: "Shangguan, the chief told me yesterday that there is endless tea to help distribute it today, and I was allowed to watch the lights and eat wine at night." The little old man had nothing to do at home, so he came to earn this meal of wine and food. ”

"Imperial Treasury, you actually broke the rules for a wine feast?"

Seeing Zheng Jian's eyebrows coldly opposed, Du Kujing was not afraid, and said with a smile: "What Shangguan said is scary, this tea should have been sent yesterday, but it was inconvenient when it was late." If you move it today, or if you sent it yesterday, what's the matter? ”

One of these two people answered calmly, and the other pretended to be crazy and stupid, Han Zong looked at it coldly, and he knew after a while that he couldn't ask anything.

Either there is really no love and disadvantage here, it just happens to be a coincidence, or these officials have already colluded, and how to deal with it in the event of an accident has long been arranged. Han Zong has been working in the sugar industry for many years, and has been following Xu Ping for a long time, and he knows that if he can't jump out of the pattern arranged by these officials, it will be useless to investigate.

So many officials went out and took their affairs seriously, and they couldn't get past without a face-saving explanation, so they left some small handles to show that the officials could report and show that they were doing things with their hearts. Anyway, it's all a small mistake, the punishment is not heavy, and the future life will also be taken care of by the officials of the accomplices, and these are also in their plan.

Seeing that Zheng Jian still wanted to reason with these two officials, Han Zong stopped him and instructed the soldiers in the hall: "Go outside and mention all the people who handed over the 'Deng' record to the shop." ”

When the soldiers went out, Han Zong called two more directors of the Salt and Iron Division's subordinates to come over, and whispered: "You two, each of you will bring a small official below to the side floor, ask questions separately, and record them in detail." ”

As he spoke, he took a pen and wrote on a piece of paper. It's nothing more than what was waiting yesterday, who arrived at the goods, who negotiated with whom, how many tea citations were exchanged, where these tea quotations were sent, and so on.

This is what Han Zong learned from Xu Ping, and it was useless to beat and scold these people, so he used this method. No matter how seamless they are, the details can't be completely matched, as long as there is a flaw, the mechanism will be broken.

Of course, if their details can be matched, then they can be trusted. Even if they are well prepared enough and even think of the details, then the officials consider themselves unlucky.

The two principals took people out, and Han Zong said to Zheng Jian again: "There is also a person from your Gouyuan to check the tea received in the last business yesterday, when and where it was issued, and the amount of imprints are checked and recorded." Afterwards, we said to these people according to the tea introduction, whether there are any disadvantages or not, we should be able to have a rough idea. ”

Zheng Jian was already preparing to be tortured there, but seeing Han Zong's arrangement, it made sense to think about it, so he called the three officials of the Gou Yuan to come over and asked them to inspect the tea introduction and record it in detail.

These references are the vouchers for entering the grain and grass along the border, and the various states and counties issued are not the same, the dates are different, and the officials who put the seals are of course not the same person. Because whether it is a traffic introduction shop or a cargo business, this must be recorded in detail, and the personnel who handle it do not say that they all remember, but they must have a general impression. If all parties can't get along, then they have the intention to cheat.

After a while, the soldiers brought two people dressed as wealthy merchants from outside and saluted Han Zong and Zheng Jian.

Han Zong said: "You two are the supervisors of the 'Deng' Ji Jiao Yin Shop?" The goods service said that yesterday you came to the shop to change tea at night, yes or no? ”

The two said together: "Shangguan, this is indeed the case. ”

Han Zong nodded: "Then was it the exchange between the two of you yesterday?" ”

One of them said, "Shangguan, I'm here." ”

"Okay, you go out with the officials of my yamen, and I have something to ask you." (To be continued.) )