"Second Master, this is an official document that the First Master has just approved."
The secretary of the county magistrate who signed the mortgage handed over an official document to Ye Xiaotian with both hands. Instructions from the county magistrate. After layers of implementation, when it came to Hua Qingfeng's place, a beautiful small script wrote "Let Ye County Prime Minister severely investigate and deal with it!"
Ye Xiaotian glanced at Hua Qingfeng's instructions before reading the text. This official document calls for the banning of smuggled goods. The reason is that the Customs and Defense Department of the Ministry of Punishment found a large number of ivory, rhinoceros horn, jadeite, pearls, seashells, jade, coral, and tortoiseshell in prosperous places such as Jinling and Beijing.
These things are all luxury products produced in Southeast Asian countries. In the past, the imperial court was very strict in order to control the amount of tribute goods from South Asian countries. At the same time, it also used this control to maintain the tribute system of Ming Dynasty. The appearance of a large number of such commodities far exceeds the amount of tributes from South Asian countries registered by the government, so they are naturally smuggled.
Now that the Sino-Myanmar War has just ended, the imperial court has banned trade with Myanmar as an economic sanction in order to punish the Burmese king. Many of the large luxury goods discovered this time are from Burma in terms of style, so the imperial court ordered Strict orders, reprimand localities must strengthen crackdowns.
After Guizhou obtained the imperial court's document, the Chief Secretary of Guizhou approved Tongren Prefecture as a prefecture. Tongren Prefecture naturally had to approve Huxian County under its jurisdiction. Huxian County was stuck at the mouth of the North-South Post Road, so it naturally bears an important responsibility.
Hua Qingfeng can approve it to Ye Xiaotian, but Ye Xiaotian can't swipe a pen and then approve it to the subordinates. As a county-level magistrate, this is his duty, and he must handle it himself.
Ye Xiaotian finished reading the text, put his hands behind his back and slowly paced around the room. Wearing a dark green official robe, he looks slender. Because there are patterns on the robes of officials above the seventh rank, his robes are very plain. Except for a quail on the bun, there is nothing else.
However, Ye Xiaotian is young, and his eyebrows and eyes are considered pretty, set off by the snow-white mid-lane neckline, he is a good-looking talent. Ye Xiaotian walked around for two cups of tea, seeing that the official was still waiting, he waved his hand and said, "You go, invite Zhang Dianshi to come."
The official promised and turned around. This canon history is called Zhang Xin, who was newly appointed by the imperial court. He is already in his early fifties. He was originally doing canon history in a third-class small county in Huguang, but now he is transferred to Hu County, which is still a third-class small county. Obviously, he has no background. Now it's just waiting for the first year to become an official.
Therefore, this Zhang Dianshi does not have any ambitions, especially since he came to Hu County, he heard about Ye Xiaotian's brilliant deeds, and he defeated two county magistrates in a row. The master also suffered a great loss under his hands, and Zhang Dianshi was even more in awe. As a result, the two of them cooperated happily and never had any conflicts.
After a while, Zhang Dianshi rushed over, clasped his fists to Ye Xiaotian and said, "My lord! I don't know what orders I have to summon the subordinates."
This dianshi was born very strong, although he is in his early fifties, judging by his vigor, he is only around forty at most. There was not even a single wrinkle on her red face, and her hair was even more black. According to his own words, this is because he has no ambitions in his chest and has never acted in any way. If his mind is simple, he will be young.
Or is it true, Zhang Dianshi really doesn't have much to argue about. Although he is not doing well in the officialdom, he never sighs and lives happily. Xu Boyi, who blindly speculates, is quite different.
Ye Xiaotian nodded at him, and said kindly: "Zhang Dianshi, sit down." He said and handed over the official document that Hua Qingfeng had forwarded. After Ye Xiaotian came back from Hongfeng Lake, he officially took up his post, and it has been more than four months so far. The autumn wind has turned the maple leaves red, and it has entered the late autumn season, and he has already done a good job in the position of county magistrate.
Zhang Dianshi finished reading the official document, frowned slightly, and asked inquiringly: "The second master thinks that these treasures flowed into the Central Plains from my Hu County?"
Ye Xiaotian waved his hands and said with a smile: "That's not necessarily the case. Let's not take this kind of thing on ourselves, but since the imperial court requires strict investigation, it always seems to be done."
As soon as Zhang Dianshi heard Ye Xiaotian say this, he knew it in his heart, he agreed with a smile, got up and left, and immediately called the three classes of yamen servants, and began to deploy. Now that the superiors have given instructions, they have to save face so that they can explain something.
Ye Xiaotian sent Zhang Dianshi away, thought for a moment, then took off his official robe, changed into a blouse, and went straight out of the yamen. Ten of the bodyguards assigned to him by the Gu God Sect were left in the mansion by him, and the other six were all recruited into the mansion, under the pretense of being a fast catcher, they were actually just his entourage.
Of course, these so-called "quick catchers" are not on active duty. The people he recruits are paid by him. As long as you can afford it, the more people you recruit, the better, the Yamen doesn't care.
Ye Xiaotian hurried on, and arrived at the post in less than half an hour. Ye Xiaotian passed the post station but didn't enter, and walked forward for more than 300 steps, which is where Luo Ligao's chariots and horses are located. After Xie Chuanfeng's money absconded and disappeared, Xie's Chariot and Horse Company was entrusted by Huazhi County to take charge of Wang Zhuzhu, and all the belongings were separately disposed of to the other two largest chariot and horse dealers, Chang's Car and Horse and Luo Ligao. OK. As for the courtyard and houses of Xie's Chariot and Horse Shop, they were bought by Luo Ligao Chariot and Horse Shop. From the appearance alone, the current Luo Ligao Chariot and Horse Shop is the largest and most luxurious around the entire station.
"Second master, why are you here?"
People who are far away generally call Ye Xiaotian Ye County Chancellor and Lord Ye, and only those who are close to him and whose status is lower than him call him the second master, which means the second in command of Hu County, second only to the county magistrate.
Except for Zhou Bantou, Su Bantou, Ma Hui, Xu Haoran and others who called Ye Xiaotian that way in the county government, the only people around Ye Xiaotian in the signing room. However, Luo Ligao's car dealership is the property of Ye Xiaotian's good brother Luo Daheng, so Sun Weixuan also called him the second master when he met him.
Sun Weixuan greeted Ye Xiaotian affectionately, with wheat-colored skin, white teeth, and a very sunny smile.
Gao Ya and Li Bohao are two young masters who are not good at running a business, and now they have been promoted from a county school to a prefectural school, let alone become young masters here.
Originally, Gao Ya and Li Bohao could only go to the county school, and just earn a reputation as a scholar. However, their father has now become the hereditary Chief Justice Officer, and they have risen with the tide, and they can continue to "study and study".
As long as they go to Tongrenfu to study and get three years of qualifications, they don't need to take the imperial examination, and they can get a Juren status, which is the privilege of the direct descendants of the chieftain family. And the tycoon is more intoxicated with his "grocery store" business, and has little interest in the car dealership, and Niu Niu is about to give birth, and he has no energy to take care of him, so Luo Ligao's car dealership has now been completely handed over to Sun Weixuan take care of.
Sun Weixuan lived up to the tycoon's entrustment, devoted himself wholeheartedly to the car dealership, and managed the car dealership's business flourishingly. Nowadays, there are few people on the post road who do not know this "Big Brother Sun" who is universal and generous.
In this way, Sun Weixuan's main job was to act as an agent for the three proprietors to deal with businessmen and tourists from all walks of life. Naturally, it was not appropriate to always deliver the cars in person. Ye Xiaotian kept on stepping, all the way up and down the hall, while saying to Sun Weixuan: "Come here, I have something to ask you!"
The living room of Luo Ligao's carriage is very spacious, although it is not exquisite, it has a bold and bold taste. Sun Weixuan followed Ye Xiaotian into the living room and personally poured him a cup of tea. Ye Xiaotian sat at the head and said to Sun Weixuan: "Weixuan, I'm here this time to ask you something."
Sun Weixuan knew him very well, so he didn't need to give up his seat, so he sat down freely and looked at Ye Xiaotian seriously. Ye Xiaotian turned the teacup and murmured: "You have been on the post road for many years. Brother Renyi to this day..."
Sun Weixuan bowed her body, expressing that she didn't dare to do it. Ye Xiaotian said: "I'm afraid there is nothing you don't know about the twists and turns of this post road. So, I came today because I want to ask you something."
Sun Weixuan smiled shyly and said, "Second Master, please tell me."
Ye Xiaotian said: "Our post road is an important traffic road that runs through Yunnan and Huguang. As far as you know, has anyone smuggled all kinds of prohibited artifacts from the southern countries to the Central Plains through this post road?"
Sun Weixuan's eyes were fixed, and he hurriedly said: "Second master, our Luo Ligao car dealership only does serious business, and we will never touch such things."
Ye Xiaotian smiled and said: "Don't worry, I'm not suspecting that Luo Ligao has committed some misconduct, otherwise I wouldn't have come to ask you directly, but asked the tycoon for guilt. Haha, that's it, the imperial court said A large number of ivory, rhinoceros horn, pearl shells, jadeite and other treasures were found for sale in Dafuli, Dacheng. These things must have been trafficked from the south. Of course, it may not have come from our Guizhou route. Just answer me based on what you know That's it."
Sun Weixuan thought for a while, and said: "When Qi Mu was here, he used to do this in his car dealership. Otherwise, he would not have accumulated such a large fortune so quickly."
Ye Xiaotian said: "Qi Mu? I know about this, he even dared to smuggle gunpowder. What I'm asking is, is there anyone else who has done this after that."
Sun Weixuan shook his head and said, "This... I have never heard of it again."
Ye Xiaotian narrowed his eyes slightly, and said: "If you were the one who did these things for Qi Mu back then, and Qi Mu died, would you stop?"
When Qi Mu was around, Sun Weixuan was just a driver of Qi Mu's subordinates. Thanks to his good driving skills, he had a higher prestige among the bitter hahas. Naturally, he was not in charge of driving for Qi Mu at that time. . Sun Weixuan thought about it seriously for a while, and said slowly: "No!"
Ye Xiaotian raised his eyebrows slightly, and said, "Oh? What's the reason?"
Sun Weixuan said: "There are many reasons. To purchase these things from the Southeast Asian countries, you need to establish a relationship with the people with good hands and eyes. To do this, I don't know how much effort it will take. Along the way, there are still many checkpoints that need to be cleared. Paving the road with money is also costly. How could the money spent not want to get it back ten times and a hundred times.
Besides, to do this, you must have some of the most loyal and reliable subordinates. If you want to stop, what about these people? When you give them money, they are your most docile loyal dogs. When you cut off their money, they will become wolves who gnaw on you. The most important thing is that although the risks are great, the profits are really huge. Once you have tasted the benefits, who is willing to give up and earn the hard-earned money? "
Ye Xiaotian still narrowed his eyes slightly, and said softly: "The person who did this kind of thing for Qi Mu at that time, was he very comfortable?"
Sun Weixuan said: "At that time, I was only a handlebar, and I didn't know the fact. However, among the several big managers who took care of Qi Mu's car dealership at that time, Chang Zizai was the one who was extremely trusted."
Ye Xiaotian smiled slightly, and said: "Very good! You just need to know about this matter, don't tell it."
Sun Weixuan stood up and said respectfully, "I understand!"
Ye Xiaotian walked out with a smile. How could he not care about smuggling, especially treasures and artifacts that were probably smuggled from embargoed Myanmar? His goal was not just to be a county magistrate, but to climb the ranks.
If he wanted to continue to be in the top position, even if he had a backer, he had to have some good achievements in order to stop others from talking, not to mention that he didn't have any backing. However, it was useless even if he ordered Zhang Dianshi earnestly. Zhang Dianshi came to Hu County to spend his days and years. However, it is always possible to use Zhang Dianshi to release some smoke to the outside world. Sometimes, planting flowers with heart is worse than planting willows unintentionally...