Flourishing of the Ming Dynasty Novel - Chapter 30

Chapter 30 Probe Into
“Lu Zhen, Zi Shansi, the Suzhou Prefecture’s Renshi of Nanzhili Province, was born in the 21st year of Yongle of the Great Ming Dynasty” As his wrist moved, neat small letters flowed out from his pen, and the person who wrote it was Lu Zhen.

Although he already had the intention to keep a low profile and not fight with the officials in the yamen, he did not do nothing because of this and became a waste of time waiting to die. Lu Zhen knew very well that if he wanted to continue living in the Great Ming Territory in this capacity without being seen through by others, he had to grasp some things that belonged to this era and understand everything about the original County Magistrate Lu in more detail and comprehensiveness. Only in this way could he pretend that no one could see any obvious flaws.

Fortunately, because of Lu Zhen’s family background, he had practiced a good writing style since he was young. At this moment, he could be of some use, instead of cramming his feet at the last moment. However, after reading some of the texts left behind by County Magistrate Lu, he felt a little embarrassed.

Originally, he thought that he would not be much weaker than the other party in calligraphy because of the sufficient supply of paper in later generations. Only after seeing what County Magistrate Lu usually wrote did he know how arrogant he was. Those small print characters that were all over the paper were truly heartbreaking.

Actually, Lu Zhen underestimated the ancients. Those who could get results in the Imperial Examination were all good writers. Otherwise, no matter how good your essay was, the messy writing wouldn’t even enter the examiner’s eyes and would be eliminated by you. Although there is no pavilion style at this time, but in the scholar, especially the examinees have long developed a habit of writing in small print like neat.

County Magistrate Lu had also brought the habit of taking the exam to life and work. All the texts were in small and neat letters. Therefore, if Lu Zhen wanted to pretend to be him, he had to learn this word as soon as possible.

Luckily, Lu Zhen’s calligraphy-his foundation wasn’t weak, and he could write with more practice, but he didn’t write so smoothly. At this moment, Lu Zhen was practicing in his public house, copying County Magistrate Lu’s report.

The so-called complaint was the official’s letter of appointment and proof of identity. When the official took office, it was this and the documents of the superior’s office that allowed him to be recognized. Not only did it contain the official’s name, birthplace, and other information, it even had a rough description of his appearance and height. This could be considered an effective method to prevent counterfeiting in ancient times without camera technology.

Now that Lu Zhen copied the notice in small letters, it could be considered killing two birds with one stone. Not only did he practice, he also memorized some of the specific conditions of County Magistrate Lu. In the future, it would be much easier to deal with official matters. Of course, this was far from enough. He had to get used to some of the rules in the bureaucracy, so he had to keep a low profile and keep a low profile during this period of time.

Very quickly, a piece of paper was written all over. After drying the ink on it and carefully examining it, a satisfied smile appeared on Lu Zhen’s face. After a few days of practice, his handwriting was already 70-80% similar to County Magistrate Lu’s. Fortunately, the other party had always handwritten neatly. Otherwise, it would not be so easy to learn to imitate him.

Just as he was about to take a sip of tea and rest, a greeting suddenly came from outside the door, “Xiaguan Dianshi Zheng Fu requests to see the county magistrate.”

Lu Zhen was obviously stunned for a moment. Previously, these so-called subordinates had come to see him and directly pushed open the door to enter. No one was as respectful and disciplined as they were in front of him. Moreover, to his knowledge, compared to Hou Xiancheng and Shen Zhubu, this Zheng Dianshi, who had never dealt with him before, was more influential in the yamen.

According to the rules and regulations of the county government, Dianshi was the second-ranked official behind the main book, Therefore, the people inside and outside the yamen always referred to him as the fourth master-the county magistrate was the first master, the county magistrate was the second master, and the main book was the third master-this position was in charge of the affairs of the prison guards and bandits in the county, which was equivalent to the director of the public security bureau and the captain of the militia in later generations, but in fact, his authority was even greater. Sometimes, even many cases were decided directly by the Canon History.

As far as the situation in Guangling County was concerned, not only was Zheng Fu, who had inherited the position of Dianshi from his father, extremely familiar with the heads of the people inside and outside the yamen, but he was also very close to the generals stationed in the city.

One had to know that this was the Great Bright Border. The military had quite a bit of power here. The local officials who could get along well with them and be protected by the generals naturally had more power, enough to suppress the officials above them.

Therefore, Lu Zhen was surprised that Zheng Dianshi, the current number one leader of Guangling County, was asking for an audience with such courtesy. However, he quickly reacted and hurriedly said, “Zheng Dianshi is too polite. Please come in and talk.”

The door was opened from the outside with another reply. A skinny, pale-faced man in his thirties came to Lu Zhen and cupped his fists in salute.

After inviting the other party to a seat, Lu Zhen asked, “I wonder why Zheng Dianshi came to see me today.”

“One of the reasons why I’m here is to greet you, Sir. Previously, when Sir was missing, I really messed up. I even sent a lot of people to search around the county for two days. Sir, after you came back, I didn’t dare to disturb you because of your injuries. I didn’t come here to greet you until today when I learned that you have recovered.” Zheng Fu said with concern.

‘”Zheng Dianshi is worried about you all. Actually, I have no problems with my body. I’m still feeling a little uncomfortable here, so I’ll have to trouble you guys about the matters in the yamen in the future.”

“I don’t dare. This is what the lowly officials should treat as.” Zheng Fu smiled humbly and asked, “Besides, the people in the yamen were also very concerned about Lord’s disappearance, but I wonder where Lord went in the past three days.” As he said this, his gaze couldn’t help but stare at Lu Zhen.

This question made Lu Zhen’s heart twitch. He was really afraid that the other party would see his flaws. But at this moment, there was no other choice, so he could only forcefully say, “Strange to say, because my head was injured, I can’t remember what happened during that period of time at all. Actually, it’s not just this matter. I feel a little confused about many of my past experiences …”

“This is actually happening?” A strange light flashed in Zheng Fu’s eyes. He carefully examined Lu Zhen for a few more times before he said, “Then Sir, you must find a doctor to take a good look. You can’t be careless about this matter.”

“Thank you, Zheng Dianshi, for your reminder. I can reflect on this.” Lu Zhen nodded in agreement. He didn’t want to get involved in this matter too much, so he changed the subject and asked, “I wonder if you have anything else urgent besides this?”

“Oh, I almost forgot if Sir didn’t mention it.” Zheng Fu stood up and took out an official document from his sleeve and handed it over, “This is the card ticket certificate for the government servant to go down to the country. I hope that the lord will give me a seal to give instructions.”

The so-called card ticket was proof that the person working below was a member of the government, just like the certificate of a certain unit in later generations. However, this card ticket is one-off and often has to be recovered and destroyed after completion. This was to prevent the petty officials below from harassing the villagers with chicken feathers as their arrows.

Moreover, this card ticket must have the official seal of the magistrate of the county. Otherwise, if it did not carry a card ticket or if it did not have a seal on it, the villagers would treat it as a bandit. Even if they were beaten to death, they would not have to bear any responsibility. This was also the power that the Imperial Court had given the magistrate to control the officials below.

However, as far as Lu Zhen knew, the majority of the card tickets in the county were issued by the fourth master, Zheng Dianshi, and his seal was also stamped on it. This was also one of the reasons why his county magistrate was completely emptied, because the villagers below actually recognized such card tickets. But now, Zheng Fu actually used a card ticket to print it on himself. It was really strange.

But Lu Zhen couldn’t figure out the reason why the other party did so, so he could only follow his instructions and stamp the card ticket with the bright red magistrate’s seal before handing it back.

Sure enough, Zheng Fu didn’t show any joy towards this. He just casually took it, put it back into his sleeve, and cupped his hands to leave.

Just as he reached the door, he suddenly thought of something and turned around, “My lord, there is one more thing I want to ask you.”

“Tell me.” Lu Zhen replied casually.

‘”Seeing that the New Year is approaching, but the supplies from the Imperial Court have yet to arrive, so Xiaoguan is thinking about allocating some food or wine from the county government’s warehouse to reward the troops in the city. I wonder what Sir thinks?” Zheng Fu’s eyes narrowed as he asked this question. He carefully stared at Lu Zhen’s face, as if he wanted to see what was happening.

Lu Zhen was a little confused about this. He didn’t have any power in his hands. It was all the work of Hou Xiancheng. Of course, in front of the other party, he didn’t say that. He said, “The border army should reward them for keeping my place safe. This official can naturally approve of it. However, the matters in the county government warehouse are still under the care of Hou Xiancheng. You can discuss with him first.”

Zheng Fu was both surprised and relieved when he saw that he had responded so calmly in a daze. “Could it be that he really forgot all about what happened before?” He said with a sigh of relief. “This is also a good thing. At the very least, there is no need to take any more risks …” He thought to himself, but his words became even more respectful. “Since that’s the case, I’ll thank you on behalf of those soldiers first.” After saying that, he turned around and left the house.

Watching Zheng Dianshi leave, Lu Zhen felt puzzled in his heart. The few serious matters that this person spoke of today did not seem to have much to do with his county magistrate, so what was his real purpose? Could it be that the other party really saw through his own problems and came to probe?

This thought made Lu Zhen feel even more pressured. It seemed that he had to continue to learn more about County Magistrate Lu, so as to cope with future changes.

Thinking of this, he picked up his brush again and began to practice calligraphy.

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