: The Negative

Cao Qiaomu is still dressed in black, and I don’t know whether it is a matter of professional habits or personality and color. Anyway, as long as he stands outside and doesn’t move or speaks, Tan Zong is not sure that he can see him.

So, although Cao Qiaomu made the opening remark in one sentence, Tan Zong did not dare to think that the somewhat elusive Dashun Jinyiwei had just arrived - maybe he slipped in after Jiang Wu, but it was too dark and he was wearing black again, and no one noticed it.

After suppressing the thoughts in his heart, Tan Zong stood up straight, with no shame on his face as he knew that his heart was dark, and there was still such an inadvertent smile on his face: "Mr. Cao, let me wait for a while. I thought that the prefect Wang of our Nanjing Prefecture was very capable enough to trap you, the supervisor."

What Tan Zong said was no longer abrupt, and it even brought a little sarcasm and ridicule, but Cao Qiaomu seemed to have no feeling at all. Jiang Wu's face even had a little kindness of surprise - although it was concealed very quickly, Tan Zong still saw it in his eyes.

"I said how dare Jiang Wu take Hu Laosan to wander around Nanjing Mansion? These two guys really sold me to Wang Ren." Tan Zong cursed in his heart, but he did not dare to show any hatred on his face. He could only continue to tease Cao Qiaomu in a playful tone: "I just don't know if Lord Cao's behavior is ready for a retreat for Tan? Or is Lord Cao trying to take Menghua's family to Baili's house for a while?"

"Tan Yayuan is joking." Cao Qiaomu sat on Tan Zong's right hand without hesitation, regardless of the cold tea on the tea table. He just picked up the teacup and took a sip, and then smiled and said to Tan Zong: "I just don't know why Mr. Yayuan refused to join my supervisor. Could it be that he thought my inspector was humble?"

"Old guy is still reluctant to give up!" Tan Zong couldn't help but curse again, but a smiley face appeared on his face. His left hand, who put down the teapot, began to knock on the coffee table regularly, making a regular sound. After thinking for a long time, Tan Zong secretly made up his mind that this hole must not be kept, and he could not say that even if he offended someone today, he would block the other party's excuses.

With this determination, Tan Zong replied: "I really don't want to supervise, so why bother Cao ask?"

"Oh?" Cao Qiaomu saw that Tan Zong still refused, but he still didn't want to give up, and immediately asked: "What if I promised the position of the sixth-rank guerrilla of Yayuan Gong? Could it be that Yayuan Gong didn't intend to move?"

The sixth-rank guerrilla is a unique position in the Supervision Department. It looks like the position is not high, but its authority is large, which is quite a bit like a patrol. In the local area, unless it is a big Yuan like Wang Ren, you will be at a higher level wherever you go. The most terrifying thing is that the guerrilla jurisdiction has a very wide range, and there are almost no departments that cannot be managed from local government affairs to water conservancy and commercial taxation.

Of course, like the supervisory position, this position only has the power to supervise and does not have the power to judge. But there is such a great god who can reach the heavenly ears standing by, so no one can think of it. Therefore, if this guerrilla wants money, it is a first-class fat man, which is exactly what Tan Zong wants both power and money.

The most important thing is that the official position of the sixth rank has far exceeded the rights and interests that the imperial examination can bring. Even if the new top scholar receives the award from the official, he can only get a deputy sixth rank editorial position in the Hanlin Academy. He will be promoted after a few years of luck.

Therefore, if Tan Zong really takes this guerrilla position, it will basically be like saving several years than others. If you want to change to later generations and save in these few years, it will almost mean that there will be countless opportunities. If Tan Zong is not moved, it would be too false.

However, Tan Zong had already thought through the pros and cons of being in the supervision. Even though he was facing such temptation, he kept holding on to his mind and did not dare to swallow the temptation in one bite. He could only show a bitter face and said, "What Lord Cao said really makes Tan difficult. It's just that Menghua entered the imperial examination and became an official, and he wanted to follow the kingly way of every step. If he really entered the supervision, he was afraid that this kingly way would not be able to pass."

After hearing this, Cao Qiaomu finally couldn't help laughing and said a few good words.

Seeing his bold and unrestrained attitude, Tan Zong couldn't help but make a sudden move, wondering if what he said just now would offend this person too harshly. But Tan Zong looked at Cao Qiaomu's expression again and felt that it didn't look like it. He hesitated for a moment, not knowing whether his decision tonight was right or wrong.

However, taking advantage of these few words, Tan Zong still thinks it is good to be able to express his purpose - to be an official.

When Cao Qiaomu's laughter stopped, Tan Zong had already calmed down and returned to his initial calmness, but his eyes were vaguely scanning Cao Qiaomu and Jiang Wu.

After having been in contact with Jiang Wu and Cao Qiaomu for a long time, Tan Zong had already had some strange thoughts in his mind: Logically speaking, as King An, Jiang Wu, who was assigned by the government to investigate the river embankment case by the government, must be the main brain of the river. But judging from his relationship with Cao Qiaomu, it seems that he has been reversed, but it is more like Cao Qiaomu as the main one, and King An is more like a soybean.

If it is said that it is a slave who bullies the master, Tan Zong doesn’t think it’s like it.

The Dashun Dynasty was established for more than 400 years, and the imperial power had never fallen behind. It was always firmly held by the royal family. Even rebellious people were rare. Just over a hundred years ago, a prince who was sent to the north was stunned and colluded with foreign enemies to invade Dashun. Who would have thought that the matter was leaked, but he was ambushed by the Dashun Dynasty and made dumplings for the invading 100,000 foreign enemies. The prince naturally executed him directly - even the process of demoting to common people was saved.

It is precisely because of this that the princes today gather in the capital and have no chance to go out on weekdays.

However, what is the relationship between Jiang Wu and Cao Qiaomu? Could it be that Jiang Wu knew that he was not capable and took the initiative to give up his dominance to Cao Qiaomu? Especially at this moment, Jiang Wu's words that came first became footnotes of Cao Qiaomu. Could it be that there is really a secret in it?

"If this is true, I am afraid that the plan to seduce King An to hook and pull that big net will be ruined." Thinking of this, Tan Zong thought a little sadly: "Only Wang Ren's head is not enough to give himself a chance to release."

Tan Zong was sad but never noticed that Cao Qiaomu was passing a look on Jiang Wu at this moment, and Jiang Wu was immediately in annoyed. After a long time, Jiang Wu frowned and shook his head slightly, but made Cao Qiaomu sigh.

The living room fell into silence like this, and there was a rare sound in the master bedroom.

After a while, there were sounds in the yard, but I don’t know who threw a bag from outside the wall. Jiang Wu was happy when he saw it and hurriedly called Hu Laosan to pick it up. He went to the living room to open the bag. When he opened it, it was exactly what Tan Zong mentioned before. He just kept it in the tree hole for a few days and was wet again, and some of the pages looked a little wet.

With this account book as a buffer, several people were thinking about it. After Cao Qiaomu took it from Jiang Wu, he took the account book and carefully looked it out.

Tan Zong had read this account book, which recorded the accounts of Nanjing Prefecture's water conservancy-related matters in recent years. Not only did it include river embankments, but also some digging ditches and other small items. It was recorded in a lot of money. However, as Tan Zong said, each transaction involved was not much, and the most was that after the Qiantang tide two years ago, the prefect of Hangzhou spent tens of thousands of taels of silver to repair the seawall.

Tan Zong was born in Yuhang, so he knew clearly that the Qiantang tide two years ago was particularly powerful, and the seawall was damaged extremely severely. I was afraid that these tens of thousands of taels of special money would not be faked, and at most it was a bit moisture.

And this is exactly what Wang Ren is so brilliant - he never makes money, but takes a long-lasting path. If he hadn't been targeted by someone with a heart, he would have been a good official all his life, and he might even be able to be on the "Dashun Qingguan Record" after his death.

After Cao Qiaomu looked through it, he sighed and showed a smile on his face, which seemed to be laughing, crying, and not crying. It was obvious that he was not aware of the action. This account was really clear, but there was no place for fraud at all. Some places with huge amounts were even made. If you look at the accounts above, you can't find out the loophole at all.

Fortunately, with Tan Zong's previous reminder, the account is of little significance. But because of this, Cao Qiaomu was surprised because he didn't understand why Tan Zong could not see through this point, but instead had to find this account by himself.

Thinking of Tan Zong’s words in the morning, Cao Qiaomu suddenly smiled again and threw the account book to Tan Zong and said, “May Duke Yayuan solve the doubts for Cao?”

"A teacher is to preach, teach, and solve doubts. Menghua dare not bear this sentence of Master Cao's answer." Tan Zong took the account book, said modestly, and then found out the pages he had seen earlier, and then said to Jiang Wu and Cao Qiaomu: "Look at it, please look at it. With the limit of one prefecture and two prefectures in Nanjing, the silver spent more than 100,000 yuan on the construction of the river embankment every year. With Wang Ren's old Taoist, there must be true and false here, and it is definitely impossible to be completely false."

Cao Qiaomu had long heard of this and knew that Wang Ren only had tens of thousands of silver in the river bank every year, so Tan Zong's analysis was completely correct, so he nodded and signaled that he agreed with Tan Zong's statement.

But Tan Zong didn't care whether he agreed or not. He just pointed to a few places on the account book and said, "I have carefully read this account book and found that these annotations are a bit strange. They not only explain the matter, but also mark some numbers on it. If I think of it, these numbers are probably a bit mysterious."

"Oh?" Jiang Wu took the account book and flipped it a few times in a row. He saw some red marks, especially when it involved the money for the river embankment, and he was indeed some numbers on it. He immediately raised his head and asked, "It's true. These numbers are really strange. Could it be that they were code words? Or was it that Wang Ren was tampered with the numbers?"

"I'm afraid it's not the case." Tan Zong retorted bluntly: "Young Master, look, whenever the river embankment is paid, these numbers seem to vary, but they also have regularities. For example, the river embankment of Nanjing Prefecture is often only one or two, Suzhou is only three or four, and Hangzhou is five or six. Therefore, these are probably not meant to be tampered, but have other intentions."

Tan Zongzheng wanted to continue to explain to Jiang Wu, but Cao Qiaomu was silent and said, "Tan Yayuan has naturally already made up his mind, why not say it outright?"

Jiang Wu seemed to have woken up and said, "If Tan Yayuan's mind has a certainty, he might as well say it directly."

Tan Zong had originally planned it well, but this time it was an opportunity for him to show off to Jiang Wu. He took the opportunity to give Jiang Wu the impression that he was smart and wise, but he didn't want to be disturbed by Cao Qiaomu's words. Especially when he looked at the smiley expression on Cao Qiaomu's face, Tan Zong felt it was dazzling - having Cao Qiaomu beside Jiang Wu was indeed in the way.

But now things are a foregone conclusion, and Tan Zong can no longer pull Jiang Wu to talk, as it will be too revealing and will not be beautiful. Therefore, Tan Zong coughed lightly and slowly said the answer in his heart and said: "In my opinion, these numbers only represent the same information, that is, when building river embankments and sea embankments, the source of those stones."

Speaking of this, Tan Zong deliberately glanced at Cao Qiaomu and Jiang Wu. Seeing that the two of them were thinking about it, they took advantage of the victory to chase them and said that they had been thinking about it for a long time: "There are one prefecture and two prefectures in Nanjing, which are mostly plain rivers, but there are not many mountains. Although there are some small hills, the number of rocks that can be mined is very limited. Therefore, when building river embankments, it is impossible to purchase goods from one place alone, and they must be divided. Among them, there are few mountains and stones in Yuhang, so there are more points.

Dashun Shanglu said that whenever transactions are made, both parties must make accounts together. When trading with the government, the account book must be specially preserved and must not be discarded for inspection by the government. Therefore, no matter how beautiful our account book is, it cannot guarantee that the account book of these seven stone mines is so perfect. Just look for an excuse and grab one of them, and then you can follow the clues and find what we want."

Tan Zong's words once again gave Jiang Wu and Cao Qiaomu an illusion of clearing the clouds and seeing the blue sky. Especially for Cao Qiaomu, who had never tried to handle a case like this, he did not stare at the main culprit, but instead played indirect fencing and taking a different approach. However, if it was really as Tan Zong said, this deviant sword edge could not only succeed, but also not alarm the snake. It would be a big move.

However, Cao Qiaomu was experienced. Even though he was moved by Tan Zong's words, he still found out the loopholes of Tan Zong and said: "The scope of this Nanjing Prefecture is so wide that there are not a hundred quarries and eighty. How can we find them with just these seven marks?"

Seeing Cao Qiaomu ask, Tan Zong had already prepared the answer and said, "I dare to ask Lord Cao, for your subordinates, if you want to go out to buy supplies, where can you go?"

Cao Qiaomu was stunned by Tan Zong's words, then glanced at Jiang Wu, and thought that this kind of favor was naturally for favors. However, Cao Qiaomu could not say this in front of Jiang Wu, otherwise he would be said by this big-mouthed brother-in-law, although it would not cause any trouble, it would be somewhat unbeautiful.

Just thinking of this, Cao Qiaomu suddenly understood what Jiang Wu meant: Since the Supervision Department would do such favors, and even the whole world, including the palace, can Nanjing be exempted from the common people? It is impossible to say, but it is still a favor! As long as it is a favor, it is naturally not something that ordinary people can involve, and it is an official or some wealthy gentry who has established relationships.

Thinking of this, Cao Qiaomu had fully understood the meaning of Tan Zong's words, and could not say that he could look up to Tan Zong: It was like the curves in the yamen, but Tan Zong, a scholar without any background, could know so clearly. If he really had no teacher's guidance, it would be a bit surprising.

"When I go back, I must convince Yun'an to deal with this matter! How can people like Tan Zong be worthy of Yu Zhao's girl? Besides, Tan Zong's family only has three good men. If Yu Zhao gets married, there is no need to worry. You have to make a decision early on this matter. If he is asked to go to the capital exam, I am afraid that it will be a rush to the sky and regret it will be useless. However, now that it is less than a year since the big exam, I can't say that I have to find an excuse to tie Tan Zong to Jiangnan, so I will definitely not let him enter Beijing."

After calming down, Cao Qiaomu looked at Tan Zong and looked a little different, which made Tan Zong tremble in fear. He thought that Cao Qiaomu was still unwilling to give up and wanted to dig himself as a "Embroidered Uniform Guard", and he couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

After seeing off Jiang Wu and Cao Qiaomu, Tan Zong couldn't help but wiped his cold sweat. In fact, at the end, he was actually using the inertial thinking of the two of them to fool Jiang Wu and Cao Qiaomu.

It’s not that Tan Zong lied to the two of them, but there were some small flaws in it, that were those marks.

Although Tan Zong said it was quite convincing, Tan Zong himself knew that the so-called markings were just a possibility, and the possibility was not high. If there was one person in Jiang Wu and Cao Qiaomu who suspected it, it would be difficult for Tan Zong to overcome this lie. Fortunately, the posture was enough in the morning, so the two of them subconsciously followed Tan Zong's thinking, even though they were actually led by Tan Zong in circles and did not find out.

However, this is also related to Tan Zong's final touch.

As Tan Zong said earlier, inferring these things is not up to the top, the key is to be true evidence. And this time the same is true: the arguments and annotations are meaningless, and only the last sentence to awaken Cao Qiaomu is truly useful. As long as you follow this line, Tan Zong deeply believes that the river embankment case will sooner or later reveal flaws.

Of course, Tan Zong still wanted Wang Ren to smooth out the flaws here, because only in this way can Wang Dong activate the second line of his psychological side. Only by moving this line can Tan Zong force Jiang Wu and Cao Qiaomu, who were trying to solve the case, to touch the huge network of interest relations in Nanjing Prefecture, and provide Wang Dong with the opportunity for promotion.
Chapter completed!