The county government in Jiangpu was built in the previous dynasty and now it seems a bit dilapidated. Although it has been repaired several times over the years, it still looks outdated. Emperor Hongwu hated corrupt officials the most. After conquering the country, he has been advocating officials for many years that they are honest and frugal, and they must not be extravagant. Therefore, no county magistrate in Jiangpu County dares to rebuild the county government at the risk of beheading. If the old ones are old, just use them.

The Yamen is located in the east of the city, with a screen wall at the main entrance, and a ferocious Qilin beast carved on it. On both sides of the gate are eight-character walls. This is also the source of what the folk saying goes, "The Yamen's eight characters open south, don't come in if you have any reason or not."

There is a huge drum on the east side of the gate, which is commonly known as the "drum of injustice" by the people. On the west side, there is a large stone tablet five feet high, two feet wide and about one foot thick. There are two warnings engraved on the monument. These two warnings are engraved for the people who are suing the lawsuit. The first one says: false accusations are plus third grades, and the second one says: False complaints are more than fifty.

These two warnings are to tell the people to think twice before they can act, and not to falsely accuse them, and not to sue them beyond their level, otherwise the magistrate will be very angry and the consequences will be very serious.

Walking inside, it is the "Yimen Gate". This Yimen Gate is usually not open. Unless the local top official is new, it will only be opened once. If the people complain or the servants in the yamen enter and exit, they usually go to the side door to the east. The side door to the east is also called the "Life Gate". On the contrary, the side door to the west is called the "Death Gate". In other words, people who come out of the Death Gate are basically death row prisoners and are about to behead them.

Going further forward is the county government hall lobby. What is different from the TV is that in ancient times, not all cases were tried in the lobby. What the lobby really tried was major criminal cases. Ordinary civil disputes or small cases were tried in the second hall, and the magistrate mainly focused on persuasion and mediation.

The newly appointed county magistrate Cao Yi is now standing outside the second hall, looking at a couplet hanging high in front of the hall, a furry beard with a big face without expression, but a cold light flashed in his eyes.

The couplet says, "The law has no relatives, and the order has no reason; the rewards and doubts are only heavy, and the punishments are only light."

This couplet can be said to be a provocation or a spur. Everyone feels different when they see it.

How did Cao Yi feel? No one except himself knows.

Cao Yi was born in the army and was just a civil servant. He was not used to the official steps that swayed when civil servants walked. He lifted the hem of his official robe and walked into the three halls with big steps. The three halls were the magistrate's office and residence. In the flower hall on the west side, Huang Magistrate was straight, holding Jingdezhen official kiln porcelain cups, and drinking tea slowly.

Huang Magistrate Huang's name is Huang Ruide. He is in his forties. He has a solemn appearance. He has a fair and handsome face and a blue beard under his jaw. He looks upright and sometimes a little bit of yin eagle flashes in his eyes.

He was a second-class Jinshi in Hongwu for 24 years. He was a real professional background. After five or six years, he had a lot of activities and finally made up for the actual lack of Jiangpu County Magistrate.

Although the magistrate is just a small seventh-rank official, he is really a fat person. Many Jinshi and even the top scholars in the imperial examination are scrambling to become the magistrate. Huang Ruide can become the magistrate because he spends a lot of money and people know how to advance and retreat.

After sipping the tea carefully, Huang Ruide narrowed his eyes slightly, as if he was closing his eyes to rest.

The light in the flower hall suddenly dimmed. Huang Ruide opened his eyes and saw a burly man standing at the door, wearing an eighth-rank official robe, staring at him quietly.

Seeing Huang Ruide open his eyes, Cao Yi bowed and said aloud: "Cao Yi, please pay homage to the county master."

Huang Ruide's heart moved, and he stood up quickly and smiled and said, "Can this be the brave general under His Highness King Yan, and the new county magistrate Cao, my Jiangpu County?"

"There is the official."

"Haha, Lord Cao, don't be too polite. You and I will be officials in the same yamen. You should be as close as brothers. In the future, I will rely on the support of my great and small matters in Jiangpu County."

Cao Yi laughed boldly and said, "You are polite to the county master. You are a new civil servant. There are many places where you don't understand the rules. If you have any offense in the future, please forgive me."

The two of them spoke politely and hypocritically, and the more they spoke, the closer they became, and in the end they seemed to have become brothers who had been separated for many years.

After a while of greeting, Huang Ruide politely invited Cao Yi to sit down. Taking advantage of the moment when he was sitting down, a hint of annoyance flashed in Huang Ruide's eyes.

According to the rules of the officialdom, after a new official takes office, he must visit Shangguan as soon as possible and listen to the instructions. This is a question of attitude. From ancient times to the present, the rules of the officialdom have always been like this.

As far as he knows, Cao Yi arrived in Jiangpu seven days ago and moved into Guanyi. It has been seven days, and it was not until today that Shanshan paid homage to her, Shangguan. What does this mean? It is obvious that he did not take his seventh-rank Shangguan into consideration.

He heard the comments from the officials and runners in the yamen. They were right, no one mountain can accommodate two tigers!

Listening to Cao Yi's bold and unpretentious laughter, Huang Ruide smiled indifferently, but the deep contempt in his eyes flashed away.

Yes, contempt. After ten years of hard work, he has been a serious and professional, and he looks down on those martial artists who are playing with swords and guns from the bottom of his heart. No matter how many people you kill or how many soldiers you bring, you are still a martial artist, a vulgar, reckless and vulgar martial artist!

Amid a gentle greeting, a cold atmosphere circulated and spread in the flower hall.

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"How did Jinyulou offend our Zuixianlou?" Xiao Fan was very curious. His ancestors were eighth generations a day, so how much hatred was there.

Lao Cai's eyes were red, and something crystal clear rolled in his eyes.

"Shopkeeper, our Zuixianlou was a well-known sign in Jiangpu County before. The officials and gentry in the county were all over the country. If you say you were invited to have a seat, the first choice was Zuixianlou. At that time, there were really many guests and full seats..."

Xiao Fan patted Lao Cai on the shoulder and comforted him: "You can't lie on the credit book and eat your money. Tell me the key point, what happened later?"

Lao Cai sniffed and said, "Later, the Jinyulou opened. Its business was very bad at that time. The guests were used to the taste of our Zuixianlou, so of course they were not willing to change the taste. Besides, the dishes cooked by the Jinyulou are indeed not as good as our Zuixianlou. The shopkeeper of the Jinyulou was anxious, so he used a despicable and shameless method to deal with us..."

"What a shameless way?"

"Jinyulou secretly bought some thugs in the market. Every day, they came to our Zuixianlou to sit and didn't eat. Each of them occupied a table, a pot of tea and five cents, and sat for a whole day. The old man was the shopkeeper at that time. It was not a solution to continue like this, so he found a thug to talk about it. The thugs might have received great benefits from the Jinyulou and did not buy it at all. Later, they became more and more aggressive, throwing rats, throwing feces, putting snakes in our lobby, and hitting customers. The shopkeeper said, if this continues, how could Zuixianlou still have business?"

Xiao Fan frowned: "Don't the old boss Chen know about these things?"

Lao Cai said with a bitter face: "Why don't you know? On the day of the thug, the old man went to report to his old boss."

"Then why didn't he report to the official?"

Lao Cai shook his head and said, "I can't repay you, I can't repay you... Jinyulou has a background."

"What's the origin?"

Lao Cai's voice became much lower and he said with a tight voice: "It is actually a restaurant run by Huang Zhixian County."

Xiao Fan's eyes were straight: "How is it possible? The court officials are not allowed to do business..."

Xiao Fan still has this common sense. Zhu Yuanzhang hated merchants in particular and had issued an order long ago. Any court officials or family members who went to business will be dismissed from office to investigate and investigate. Is Huang Magistrate so brave enough to commit crimes against the wind?

"Of course, officials cannot do business, but Huang Magistrate Huang has done a good job in superficial skills. The shopkeeper of Jinyulou is surnamed Zhou. It seems that he can't fight with Huang Magistrate Huang Magistrate, and no one can find out the problem. But in fact, this shopkeeper Zhou is the nephew of a servant of Huang Magistrate Huang Magistrate. The servant is a distant relative of Huang Magistrate who has been in the fifth ward. He has long returned to his hometown to retire. Even if the Jinyiwei was still there, he cannot find out the relationship between Jinyulou and Huang Magistrate..."

Xiao Fan's face was a little bitter: "This relationship is indeed quite far away..."

"There is no airtight wall in the world. Actually, the officials and servants in the county yamen, and the gentry, know that no one has said it openly. As soon as the matter spreads, for the sake of the magistrate's face, you say, who can't go to Jinyulou for a meal and flatter the magistrate's magistrate? Those who are raving trouble, dare to report to the official? That's not causing trouble to the family? The old boss suffered such a secret loss, so he had to swallow his anger and watch Jinyulou squeeze our Zuixianlou day by day..."

Xiao Fan was filled with indignation when he heard this. He was so angry that he pulled his hair...

Seeing that Xiao Fan's face was full of anger and even his face was distorted, Old Cai hurriedly comforted him: "As the saying goes, the people do not fight with officials, the shopkeeper is like this, don't be angry, the evil people will be punished sooner or later, God will punish him..."

This curse is really negative...

Xiao Fan said angrily: "Will I be angry about this?"

"Then why are you angry?"

Xiao Fan's eyes were almost spitting out of fire.

I thought being a shopkeeper was a reward, but now I realized it was a punishment. Chen Siliu is so despicable! Didn’t he just not marry your daughter? As for revenge on me like this? I asked me to fight against Jin Yulou, who had a tough background, to put me on the fire and roast me?

He doesn't mind being a duck, but he doesn't like being a roast duck! A famous dish flashed through Xiao Fan's mind.

Beijing roast duck, choose a white and tender duck, 100 grams of sweet noodle sauce, 6 spoons of maltose, 3 spoons of cooking wine, brush evenly on the duck, bake on the front of the fire for 20 minutes, bake on the reverse side for 20 minutes, roast on the back, roast on the roast...

Hot! So hot! So hot! So hot...

Chen Siliu smiled and brushed the sweet noodle sauce, roasted and roasted...
Chapter completed!