The Silent Reforms of Eldridge Chapter 39

After Zhu Zaidong arrived, I asked him: "You owed more than 90,000 taels of miscellaneous funds. Your crime was serious, but you thought you were justified. Isn't it unreasonable to not be short-changed? Besides, I heard that you used the bad rules you sent to accuse your boss. He also said that the account book is in your hands, and you can write whatever you want. To be honest, you are not in trouble because of bad rules. As far as I know, you are extravagant and do everything you want. You didn't get up until about four o'clock in the afternoon, and you stayed up all night; you never arraigned murder criminals from the first lunar month until the winter lunar month, and you shelved all the pleadings handed in by the people; the vendors selling cooked food in front of the county government started at dark It's open all night long, and the people in the county call it a ghost market. Just with these few words, I can kill you, do you believe it?"

Zhu Zaidong was so frightened that he knelt on the ground and kowtowed. I saw that he no longer had the arrogance he had before, so I comforted him a few words and let him go down. I said to Wu Wo'ou again: "It seems that this case cannot be settled unless you shed some blood. You have gained Zhu Zaidong's benefits. Although you cannot return them all, if you don't help him, there is no guarantee that he will not take risks." So Lian Jing was assigned to give 6,000 taels, Pan Duo was to give 8,000 taels, Wang Zhaochen was to give 8,000 taels, Lin Shuheng was to give 3,000 taels, Jiading prefect Shao Meng was to give 3,000 taels, and Zhu Zaidong paid for the two properties he bought in the provincial capital. Some of the five thousand taels were borne by the new magistrate of Jianwei County who took over, and Wu Wo'ou took care of the rest. After the shortfall was filled, the case was considered closed.

After the case was concluded, Prime Minister Qi ordered Chengdu County Magistrates Hengyu and Duan Xuan to come and ask me: "Zhu's case has been concluded. Should the officer be reinstated?" I said, "How can a county magistrate who has caused such a huge deficit still be punished?" Do you want to give him the country's money and food again? I mean, it would be worthy of him to be reduced to a subordinate. If he must be reinstated, I would not dare to sign. "Qi Xiang also agreed with me. . Later, the memorial was sent, but the approval document from the Ministry of Civil Affairs had not yet arrived. Zhu Zaidong was finally dismissed due to delays in handling human life cases for nearly two years.

When committee members are selected to act as agents, they are often divided into good and bad or average based on the benefits of the position. If there are any merits or demerits, committee members with outstanding performance will be selected. If there is a shortage of positions where there is not much opportunity, members will be selected in turn based on their seniority. However, Chen Shimei, the former feudal lord, had an unusual approach. When faced with shortages or shortcomings, he would select members from among the committee members who were usually willing to serve. When there were advantages and disadvantages, he would select members in turn. Qi Xiang approved the execution without taking a closer look. After I took office, the first thing I did was apply for the restoration of the old seal. Those who perform well in daily life must of course be rewarded with merit and demerits. If they are only left to suffer hardship, who will be willing to do anything in the future? As for the rotating committee members, they only work in the province every day and are assigned to work according to shifts. These people have nothing to say. Next, I classified more than 20 positions into pros and cons, and all others were classified into rotating committees. Qixiang thought my approach was fair and regretted approving Chen Shimei's charter. The alternate members were also encouraged when my charter was approved.

Baochuan Bureau's drum furnace is used to make money. The furnace is opened in October every year and shut down in February of the following year. The copper used was transported from Ningyuan Prefecture to the bureau, and then went to the vassal Yamen to collect the money. The money minted by the Baochuan Bureau was used to match the salary of civil officials, as well as the salaries of servants and catchers. As time went by, all kinds of disadvantages arose. Not only did the copper coins become dull in color and rough in shape, but they also broke when dropped on the ground. The reason why businessmen in the market are reluctant to use this kind of money has a lot to do with the currency system itself. According to the rules for coining coins, the ratio of raw materials should be six copper to four lead. Besides, the copper in Sichuan is always hard, so why does it break when you pinch it with your hands? The investigation revealed that there were too many bad rules that the Money Making Bureau wanted to send to various officials, and the cost of receiving them was simply not enough to make that much money, so a large amount of black lead was mixed in, and the copper was stolen and sold. Naturally, the quality of the money making was reduced. No need to talk about it.