After sending scouts to the Sword Pavilion, Deng Ming continued to inspect the work of the Chengdu Prefecture Yamen and found that most of the work was done roughly. The main reason for this is not Liu Jinge's lack of work ability - although Liu Jinge did a rather bad job because of his lack of experience, but more importantly, there are too many things to take care of in the Chengdu Yamen now.

Since the Song and Ming dynasties, the power of the magistrates has been very great, and they are the agents of the Son of Heaven, both the eyes and ears of the imperial court and the minions of the imperial court. However, the magistrates had very limited practical powers, compromised with the powerful and clan powers, acquiesced in their control of the judicial power in the townships, and recognized and helped them obtain various privileges. Because the magistrates can't manage so many things at all, they can't be busy with just the two things of the prefecture and county to judge cases and collect taxes, and they all need the assistance of the criminal master and the local tyrants.

Under Deng Ming's deliberate guidance, the young Chengdu Prefecture Yamen ambitiously intervened in all aspects of society, and his scope of authority greatly exceeded that of the traditional local government, which of course led to a dramatic increase in the burden of zhìzhèngfǔ. Now Chengdu has implemented the separation of judicial and administrative affairs, which has slightly reduced Liu Jinge's burden, and the general civil disputes are mediated by the Tingshi, although the Pavilion is an administrative unit, but if the people are dissatisfied with the mediation results, they will appeal to the criminal judge instead of looking for Liu Jinge to complain. Yuan Xiang was very busy with this alone, and after meeting Deng Ming, Yuan Xiang said that he needed to recruit a large number of masters and establish a shogunate to complete the work. Deng Mingzhu said that he could expand the establishment and promote more formal officers to share the work, and the specific training and qualifications could be further discussed.

Although he doesn't have to bother with judicial issues, Liu Jinge's work pressure is still more than ten times that of a normal magistrate, so he can only selectively do some of the work that he thinks is most urgent.

Young and in good health, Liu Jinge didn't seem to realize how heavy his burden would be in the future, and said: "Admiral, the view of the lowly position is that when the farm is harvested, the lowly will mainly collect protection money, and when the farm is slack, the lowly will mainly focus on Chūn Xilu......"

As for now, Liu Jinge's main jīng power is, of course, placed on the auction of cultivated cattle. In order to grasp the first-hand situation, Liu Jinge has to go to the auction site to supervise almost every day. In the recent rìzi, the shop pù tax, water control project and pavilion construction, Liu Jinge didn't have time to ask at all.

"There is also the problem of reading and reading." Deng Ming asked about education again, but he didn't give Liu Jinge clear instructions before leaving, but just asked him to collect information first.

"Every pavilion is learning words, and the pavilion chief has been elected." Liu Jinge didn't seem very confident when he answered, because people's jīng power was limited, and he hadn't asked about the construction of the pavilion for a long time, so he could only answer Deng Ming by impression.

"I'm not just asking about the pavilion, it's about other people's literacy. For example, Yuan Tisheng just said that he needs more manpower, as a criminal officer, in addition to justice, he must know the law, right? You can't always judge right or wrong by throwing a copper coin. Deng Ming snapped his fingers and said: "All the trading houses need Mr. Bookkeeper, they need men, and the people need to learn how to grow food better, and they all need to be taught by Mr. ”

"These things are also to be taken care of?" Liu Jinge was taken aback.

"Of course, the prefect is in charge of the school." Deng Ming said it well, but in the past, although the county school and the prefect were nominally in charge of the county order and the prefect, in fact they were doing some work allocated to Lumi, and occasionally took the time to inspect it, and the magistrates completely ignored what and how to teach.

However, Deng Ming, who came from modern society, obviously will not be indifferent to education. He told Liu Jinge that the Chengdu government must support the education industry, train qualified bookkeepers and workers in response to the current social needs, popularize advanced industrial and agricultural production experience, carry out legal education, and eliminate illiteracy.

Liu Jinge was stunned for a while, and vaguely felt that the workload was probably no less than collecting taxes. However, Liu Jinge was a young man under the age of twenty after all, so he quickly put aside his fear of difficulties and patted his chest to Deng Ming and assured: "Don't worry, the admiral is not sleeping at night, and he must do all these things properly." ”

"Good! I'm counting on Brother Liu. Deng Ming encouraged a few words, and then took out another question: "What are your plans for the selection and assessment of pavilions in the future?" And how do the officials in the prefect's yamen determine the establishment? How is it selected? How to substitute? ”

"This ......" in Liu Jinge's impression, both the clerk and the pavilion are similar to the traditional sense of the small official, and the selection and replacement method of the small official is very simple, blood inheritance plus the recommendation of the old official: "Naturally, the son inherits the father's business, and the brother dies with the younger brother, if there is a vacancy, it will be recommended by the pavilion chief." ”

"No way!" Deng Ming vetoed it without hesitation. In his opinion, this is the same as the imperial power in feudal society does not go to the countryside, and it is only because the local officials can't control it that they are simply given to the local heroes for nothing. He gave Liu Jinge a brief introduction to his ideas, that is, to establish a selection and assessment system, as well as a survey of the public sentiment of Tongxiucai.

At this time, Xiong Lan and Yuan Xiang both cast sympathetic glances at Liu Jinge. Originally, they still felt that the workload of the three of them was about the same, but now it is obvious that although Xiong Lan and Yuan Xiang both have a big mountain on their backs, Liu Jinge has to carry three on their backs.

And Young Man Liu is ambitious and full of generosity and heroism: "Well, I just told the Admiral that I have to run the school well even if I don't sleep, this assessment and selection, it seems that I have to sell cattle for two days and find time to get it." Liu Jinge thought that staying up for a few days without sleeping and establishing a set of rules would be all right, and when he thought of this, he reassured: "Don't worry, the lowly will personally inquire about all the matters related to the selection of officials." ”

"Okay." Deng Ming nodded approvingly, and continued to place the mountain on Liu Jinge's shoulder: "What do you think about water control and road construction?" ”

"This ...... Is this also a lowly responsibility? No matter how strong Liu Jinge's optimism was, sweat began to permeate his forehead.

"yes." Deng Ming pointed out that building bridges and paving roads has always been the job of local officials. Although dozens of magistrates often did not build any roads and bridges for hundreds of years, it was their job, at least nominally.

Building bridges and paving roads involves raising funds, organizing manpower, planning projects, and acquiring land and purchasing materials, and no task is simple. Under normal circumstances, even if the magistrate has an idea in his heart, he will give up after seriously pondering the specific difficulties, not to mention the roads outside the city, even if the roads in the county seat and the capital city are not repaired for a hundred years or even hundreds of years. Therefore, although this is the duty of the magistrates, 99 percent of the officials will not move this idea, they prefer that rich merchants and gentry will come forward to do this, and those who have money and leisure will complete this kind of great project with great effort, and the magistrates are very willing to repay the leaders with plaques and commendations from the imperial court.

"Just like Chūn Xi Road, reasonable road construction allows us to collect more taxes, which is zhèngfǔ to make money; In addition, the construction of the avenue can help us move our troops more quickly, which is conducive to the defense and offensive of the capital, which is zhèngfǔ in the right place to spend money, and the Liu Governor's Mansion has time to study it. Deng Ming emphasized the importance of this job, and then unceremoniously threw all the work to Liu Jinge.

In addition to building roads, Deng Ming also suggested that Liu Jinge should consider the construction of industrial and commercial districts, so that Chengdu can become more prosperous, more productive, and more profitable.

"I don't know if I can do it." Liu Jinge simply thought about it for a while, and then he felt his scalp tingle, and a large number of things that needed to be considered were mixed together and tangled in his mind.

"Governor Liu can't do it alone." After hearing Deng Ming's idea, Yuan Xiang thought about it with interest for a while, and found that these things were far more complicated than he imagined, so he immediately pleaded with Deng Ming: "There are so many things, at least three more things can be done." ”

"If it is divided among several people, it is easy to go their own way." Of course, Deng Ming wanted to separate his powers, because no one could do so many things alone, and he was not willing to put all such great power in the hands of one person. The rights of traditional government offices are very limited compared to modern government offices, but local officials can still get what they want; And the modern zhèngfǔ officials who are not controlled zhì do not seem to have a difficult task to become a billionaire, at least Deng Ming has this impression.

However, everything must be strategic, although Deng Ming does not trust the self-discipline of officials at all, he absolutely refuses to show his distrust of Liu Jinge, Yuan Xiang and others. Deng Ming said worriedly: "If I separate tax collection, education, and construction planning, they may each have their own set of rules, and you have all heard it just now, these things are closely related." My plan is that Brother Liu, you take responsibility for the matter, and Brother Yuan is responsible for reviewing whether the specific measures will be harmful to the people. In this way, it is possible to make as much money as possible without harming the people. ”

Shut down

"It's better than this," Xiong Lan suddenly proposed a proposal: "The admiral can set up a yamen for tax collection, teaching, bridge building and paving, or other things like a bank, but these yamen, like banks, are under the control of the prefect's yamen; Governor Liu is responsible for coordinating the overall situation, so that each yamen will not go their own way. It is up to Governor Liu to judge whether the methods of different yamen are harmful to other yamen, and Yuan Tixing is responsible for judging whether they will be harmful to fellow talents. ”

Deng Ming glanced at Xiong Lan deeply, and the other party did not show any abnormality on his face. Deng Ming thought: "Xiong Lan has no intention of concealment, evasion or tacit understanding. Maybe he drew inferences from what I said to Yuan Xiang, but this reaction speed was too fast, and I thought they needed more time to think, and I would have to hint at it a few more times. I don't know if Xiong Lan thinks that I am decentralizing power for the sake of decentralization, or if I really understand the benefits of modern decentralization management so quickly? ”

"Governor Xiong is reasonable, I'll think about it." Deng Ming felt that the coordinating role of the city should be greater than the decision-making role, in addition to preventing **, it can also avoid laymen leading insiders. Deng Ming planned to set up the Education Bureau, the Taxation Bureau, and the Planning Bureau, but in the initial stage, the staff must have been laymen, and I wonder if the laymen would be better than the "laymen who are led by the laymen".

Deng Ming thinks that Xiong Lan may be a genius who is particularly good at understanding the modern social system: "I handed over the bank to him, and with a simple explanation, he was able to expand his business quickly, and realized the importance of talent training and talent reserve, and took the initiative to ask me to recruit more managers and cashiers." Well, no matter what era there will always be such a genius, he should have realized the superiority of modern management methods in the process of running a bank. ”

Xiong Lan's achievements must be affirmed, and his credit for helping Deng Ming build a ladder also needs to be commended, so Deng Ming announced: "I'll go to President Xiong's bank to have a look." ”

Xiong Lan immediately became excited. Deng Ming's review of the bank manager, cashier, and security brigade is an honor, not to mention that it is the first unit to be inspected after Deng Ming returned to Chengdu. Xiong Lan is very confident in the jīng god of the bank clerk, although she did not go to the battlefield, Xiong Lan's training work has never relaxed, the armor, knives and guns are polished as new, and the cashier holds stone locks every day for longer training time than when she was in the army. In her spare time during the training, Xiong Lan also arranged for cashiers to learn some additional knowledge, including arithmetic and writing, which although it has little to do with the army's own work, it can also be called the icing on the cake. Xiong Lan was convinced that Deng Ming would be full of praise and was very satisfied with the bank troops.

Looking at Xiong Lan's excited face and the confidence he revealed, Deng Ming concluded that the bank staff must have been well trained, so he was even more looking forward to Ming's inspection work.

…… chóngqìng。

The governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi had always been quite wary of Deng Ming, so as not to be caught off guard by his sudden attack on Chóngqìng. However, Deng Mingbiao was quite credible, and more than 1,900 prisoners were released unharmed, and the Ming army did not carry out any propaganda against Li Guoying.

In exchange for nearly 2,000 captives, Li Guoying was supposed to deliver more than 2,000 head of cattle and the same number of harnesses and iron ploughs, but Li Guoying did not have that many cattle. After a calm and friendly negotiation, Gao Mingzhan finally paid Deng Ming a total of 1,300 ploughing cattle and 500 donkeys, and the rest of the materials were supplemented with farm tools, hoes, axes, sickles, saw blades, rakes, etc., Gao Mingzhan found that there was nothing Deng Ming did not want.

In addition to the prisoners of war demanded by the Qing army, Gao Mingzhan also brought back a bag full of gold and silver, and he whispered to Li Guoying: "This is what Deng Ming asked his subordinates to transfer to the governor." ”

At the end of the list of personnel transferred by the Ming army, there is also a vague mention of this treasure that should be transferred by Gao Mingzhan.

After seeing this burden, Li Guoying was so surprised that he couldn't speak for a long time, and then sneered a few times: "Hmph, does Deng Ming think that he can buy his official with such a little yellow and white thing?" ”

"No," Gao Mingzhan honestly relayed: "Deng Ming asked the subordinate to tell the Governor that there are no rules, no matter how he and the Governor are on the battlefield, since the transaction has to be paid to the small account, this is called 'Brother, settle the account', he will never break the rules." ”

"Phew!" Li Guoying was stunned for a moment, and finally scolded fiercely: "Although Deng Ming is a thief, he is also a giant, how can he learn the untouchable tone of a businessman?" This is clearly looking down on the official. ”

"Who's to say it isn't?" Gao Mingzhan agreed, but his tone changed: "What about this burden of gold?" ”

"Of course I don't." Li Guoying replied without thinking, and asked casually, "Did Deng Ming give you any small accounts?" ”

"Nope!" Gao Mingzhan replied solemnly.

"Well, you see, he just wanted to humiliate me." Li Guoying is convinced of this.

In his opinion, Gao Mingzhan was once captured, and Deng Ming could not afford to look down on a captive, nor could he give benefits to the captive; If the purpose was not to buy but to humiliate, there was no need for Deng Ming to give Gao Mingzhan benefits, and what humiliation was heavier than being captured?

"There are probably a few hundred taels of gold, you can take it and share it with Wang Mingde, it can be regarded as a shock to you, and it will cost money to rebuild the army." After thinking about it, Li Guoying instructed Gao Mingzhan: "You also have hard work this time. ”

"Obey the order, the governor is public and selfless, and the petty officials must be broken to their bones in return." Gao Mingzhan replied movingly.

After learning that the Ming army had retreated, Li Guoying was relieved a lot. In his opinion, exchanging a batch of ploughing cattle and tools for Deng Ming's retirement is not completely without benefits. If there were a large number of military baggage here, the Ming army would inevitably be red-eyed. Of course, if Li Guoying evacuated Chóngqìng, he would definitely burn all the materials on fire and would not leave the Ming army behind, but the other party might attack with the idea of what happened. However, now Chóngqìng, whether it is the auxiliary soldiers or the short farm tools of the Ming army, have been taken away by Deng Ming, and it is estimated that for the time being, the Ming army will not have the idea of attacking Chóngqìng again. When the robbers have robbed enough, they always have to go back to the cottage to rest for a while, and when there is no rice in the pot again, they will have the urge to rob again.

"We won about two years," Li Guoying calculated Deng Ming's income from this robbery of Jiangnan and Huguang, conservatively estimated that there were hundreds of thousands of stone of grain and tens of thousands of men, and now with the addition of ploughing cattle and farm tools, Deng Ming will not have too strong hope of attacking in a year or two, Li Guoying felt that this gave him a chance to breathe: "At least we have won more than a year and a half, we can calmly return to Baoning, and then fight with Deng Ming again." ”

...... "What does the Governor say?" After Wang Mingde and the others saw Gao Mingzhan, they hurriedly asked.

"The Governor doesn't want his share, let us divide it ourselves." Gao Mingzhan opened the burden and said to the captured generals around him.

"Then we'll split up."

Everyone first divided the gold in half, half of it went to Gao Mingzhan and the three generals who were captured in Chengdu, and the remaining half went to Wang Mingde, Hu Wenke and others, and the proportion they distributed was the proportion of the small account that Deng Ming paid them.

"Deng Ming, this person is really interesting." After dividing up the gold and silver, everyone once again talked about the enemy's commander, and when they went to ask for the captured subordinates, Deng Ming actually paid kickbacks according to the number of people they ransomed. In the past, it was all about life and death in wars, and no one expected such a strange thing to happen.

Because Deng Ming spent most of his gold and silver in Huguang, he had to improvise a special IOU to pay to the generals in the Qing army, which he called a coupon coupon.

"The Governor said that Deng Ming will not come to attack us again in a year and a half to two years, and we should take the opportunity to accumulate strength and wait for two years to attack Chengdu again."

"Will it? So how is this coupon he gave us a 12-month validity period? Hu Wenke took out an IOU and waved it in front of people. This time, Hu Wenke redeemed 100 of his subordinates, and Deng Ming's gold and silver were limited, so he could only give some rebates symbolically, but he generously returned the discount coupons to Hu Wenke's 20 people, promising Hu Wenke to return 20 of his subordinates for free with this coupon within a year.

"Does that mean he thinks we'll fight him in a year?" Wang Mingde redeemed more than 300 people and got more than 70 returned coupons from Deng Ming's hands.

"And then be captured by him, and then redeemed?" Another general asked, and then quipped: "General Wang, if you are arrested by Deng Ming and take a hundred or so people, won't you be able to promote that 'very important person'?" ”

The vouchers also had small print written that if more than 500 captives were redeemed each year, Deng Ming would upgrade him to a "very important person" and enjoy the "most preferential treatment" in the captive exchange for the coming year. If more than 500 captives are redeemed for three consecutive years, they can also be upgraded to "very important people for life", and they can claim back 20 captives for free every year in the future, and enjoy the preferential policies of continuous innovation in the future.

Now it seems that only Wang Mingde has a chance to be promoted to "very important person".

"Then it's more than a hundred cows," Wang Mingde knew that his colleagues were joking, and he didn't take it seriously, he pointed to a row of small print at the bottom of the coupon to explain, and also joked to everyone: "Deng Ming also said that the use of return coupons will not be counted in the number of promotion of 'very important people'." ”