Chapter 87： Throwing bricks

Chapter 87 Throwing Bricks

Gu Mingda was ready to beat Zhang Guangzong to death.

But his visit to Magistrate Wu this time had some twists and turns.

The first person he saw was not Magistrate Wu, but Master Chen.

"Zhongde, the county magistrate is troubled by his official business. I'm afraid he won't have time to spare today. If you have anything important, I will report it as soon as possible." Master Chen said.

Gu Mingda's nickname was Zhongde, which was the name given to him by his teacher when he was admitted to Tongsheng.

Master Chen and Gu Mingda are also very familiar with each other, and their words are very clear.

Seeing Master Chen's anxious face, Gu Mingda was moved and asked, "Mr. Chen, is there anything I can do to help? Just say it and don't be polite to me."

After hearing this, Mr. Chen hesitated for a moment and then said: "Zhongde, you are not an outsider, so I just said that there was news suddenly from above that old accounts need to be sorted out. Now that the New Year is approaching, the yamen is short of manpower and one person is required." When they were together, I didn't go home for several days."

Gu Mingda, who has always been transparent and mellow, said: "That's a lucky coincidence. I was worried about how to repay the kindness of the county magistrate."

Although Mr. Chen really wanted Gu Mingda to help, he did not dare to make the decision without authorization. After going in to report to Magistrate Wu, he happily led Gu Mingda around and around into a room in the back office.

The back office has always been the residence of Magistrate Wu and his family, and it was enough to surprise Gu Mingda when it suddenly turned into an office.

After entering, Gu Mingda only saw that the spacious hall in the past was now full of piles. He looked around and saw only a tall account book and exhausted faces.

It is obviously very busy, but not all the scribes in the yamen are here, about half of them are not here.

There are also several literate government officials in the house.

Gu Mingda couldn't help but think that he would rather use the government officials to make up the number than find the other half of the clerks who were not present. Obviously it was not convenient for the other half to know about this.

Those who didn't come happened to be close to the former county magistrate.

Magistrate Wu sat at the head of the table with a solemn expression. From time to time, someone would bring a ledger to him, and he would nod or shake his head after reading it.

Master Chen first took Gu Mingda to see Magistrate Wu. Magistrate Wu was very busy and didn't even have time to talk, but he looked at Gu Mingda with a closer look.

Master Chen had another table brought in, along with a stack of ledgers.

"Zhongde, please take a look at these accounts first. If you notice any problems, tell me directly." Master Chen warned.

Gu Mingda nodded. He knew what he was here to do. If he wanted Magistrate Wu to go against the conventions of the officialdom, at least he had to become one of Magistrate Wu's.

Although the relationship between them was okay before, they were not close enough.

Gu Mingda picked up a ledger and took a look at it. He suddenly realized something. Then he took a general look at the pile of ledgers on the table. Gu Mingda suddenly had some kind of guess in his heart.

He was still not sure, so he went to Master Chen with the problematic page in the first account book.

Master Chen took it and took a look at it. After calculating it with an abacus, he nodded: "There is indeed a vacancy of five taels of silver."

Master Chen took out a brand new book and wrote something on it.

Gu Mingda glanced at it seemingly unintentionally, and saw that the numbers on the page had accumulated to thousands of taels.

"Sir, are you going to check the taxes of the past 20 years this time?" Gu Mingda asked.

Master Chen shook his head and said, "It's not that long, it was probably the land tax from the 12th to the 18th year of Fengqi." Gu Mingda paused slightly when he heard this.

From the 12th to the 18th year of Fengqi, this time happened to be the term of office of the former magistrate Gou County.

Gu Mingda returned to his seat, pretending to be nonchalant, and continued to look through the accounts.

He worked hard like everyone else in the room, devoting himself wholeheartedly to this matter, lighting lamps and boiling wax with them, and there was nothing strange about it.

"Why do we suddenly have to go forward to check the accounts, and the time is so urgent, and we don't even take a break during the New Year?" Gu Mingda casually asked the clerk sitting at the next table.

When people are tired, their brains move slower. The clerk said casually: "Looking at the previous accounts, someone is probably going to deal with the previous county magistrate."

After saying this, he felt a little regretful. This matter was just his speculation based on Magistrate Wu's actions, so why did he say it so carelessly.

"Zhongde, please forget what I just said." The scribe said softly to Gu Mingda.

Gu Mingda didn't even raise his head, still staring at the account book in front of him, and said, "I'm sorry, what did you just say? I accidentally got distracted."

The scribe felt relieved. He was afraid that Gu Mingda was trying to trick him, so he asked, "What were you thinking about just now?"

Hearing this, Gu Mingda put down the account book and said with a smile, "I thought of my little daughter. Her legs were numb and she told me that her legs were crazy."

The clerk originally just asked casually, but when he heard this, he couldn't help laughing and said, "Children are always full of strange ideas."

Gu Mingda nodded and said, "Only a little girl would think that. My youngest son would only say that someone stabbed his leg with a needle."

When the clerk saw that Gu Mingda looked like a slave to his daughter, he became more and more convinced that Gu Mingda had not heard what he just said, and he felt reassured.

Gu Mingda's mood was very complicated when he spoke out. Now he was sure that the current Magistrate Wu had probably received an order from his superiors to violate official customs and take action against the former Magistrate Gou.

Gu Mingda couldn't help but sigh that he was so lucky. He almost dozed off without a pillow, as if there was a pair of invisible hands controlling everything behind his back.

Could it be that it went so smoothly because it was related to Niuniu? Gu Mingda couldn't help but think.

His luck has always been bad. Otherwise, a scholar would not have been able to take the exam for so many years.

But this matter still needs him to continue to promote.

Gu Mingda had been busy in the county for three days and had finally finished sorting out the old accounts. He took a look at the data recorded by Master Chen and saw that it had already reached an astonishing thirty thousand taels of silver.

Even so, Magistrate Wu still seemed dissatisfied.

The county magistrate was dissatisfied, so the master also became unhappy.

No matter how unhappy you are, you still have to eat. Firstly, it is approaching the New Year, and secondly, everyone should be well rewarded for their hard work for several days.

Magistrate Wu held a special banquet in Houya, and Gu Mingda was also among them.

"Yellow rice wine?" Magistrate Wu was very surprised when he looked at the jar of yellow rice wine that Gu Mingda brought over, and then said: "When I first came to Guang'an County, I heard someone said that there used to be a kind of yellow rice wine in the county, which had a mellow taste. It’s quite good, but it’s a pity that the winemaker has stopped making wine for many years, so I didn’t have the opportunity to taste it.”

Gu Mingda chuckled lightly, cupped his hands and said, "The winemaker you are talking about is my father. He is old and can't remember how to make wine. This wine is from him. More than ten years ago, I was admitted to Tongsheng University. It was brewed every year, and I originally expected to drink it after I was admitted to be a scholar, but unfortunately I failed to live up to expectations and struggled for several years, and then I was lucky enough to pass the exam..."