Reborn girl from poor family

Chapter 18 Collusion

"It's naturally a collusive relationship."

"Tell me in detail, one by one." Shen Huai pretended to listen.

Su Ya stamped her feet. She walked outside every day and often went in and out of the back houses that were heated by the stove, so she didn't wear very thick clothes. At this time, the sun was setting, and people stood by the water without moving. It was cold. My mind crawled up from the thin soles of my shoes.

The shoes had been worn for a long time and the soles were worn out. Yan wanted to throw them away a long time ago, but Su Ya felt sorry for her mother's hard work of sewing them carefully, stitch by stitch, and was reluctant to throw them away.

She can usually deal with it, but who knew she would have to stand outside for so long today? Now that she and Shen Huai are in a business relationship, she naturally wants to seek more benefits for herself.

So, she asked calmly: "Can we go inside to talk? It's too cold outside."

When she spoke, her lips opened and closed, and she breathed white. Her nose and cheeks were a little red from the wind. The rouge birthmark that covered half of her face rubbed from the corner of her left eye, and she didn't know whether it was blown by the wind. Yes, with a little watery glow.

Shen Huai's indifferent eyes passed over her face, his eyelids trembled slightly, and he walked towards the house first.

Su Ya followed immediately.

Sure enough, no matter how beautiful the scenery in Huaiyuexuan Courtyard is, it cannot be more beautiful than the charcoal fire in the room.

Su Ya silently stood beside the stove where the silver charcoal was burning, and began to sort out the information Shen Huai wanted in her mind.

"Hu Xing, the one who participated in the political affairs of Cao, although he is the deputy of Cao Governor, he seems to have been very cooperative, but he has actually wanted to change to the position of Cao Governor for a long time."

"Oh? Why should he?"

Shen Huai's reaction was very sharp.

Only those who have worked hard on officialdom can so keenly capture the first piece of information provided by Su Ya. There is a key foreshadowing in it——

Being a governor is not something anyone can do if they want to.

As an important official of one party, Caodu can exercise the same powers as a feudal official at the second-grade level because he has the biggest difference compared with other officials: the scope of Caodu's powers has not been clearly divided by the imperial court. .

The full name of Caodu is "Governor-General of Water Transport, Admiral of Military Affairs and Coastal Defense, Governor of Fengyang, etc. and in charge of rivers." In addition to being in charge of water transport, that is, the collection, unloading and warehousing of grain sent by the Governor-General, he also supervises military affairs and is in charge of coastal defense. At the same time, He concurrently serves as Fengyang Prefecture, Huai'an Prefecture, Yangzhou Prefecture, Luzhou Prefecture and Xuzhou, Hezhou and Chuzhou, a total of "four prefectures and three prefectures". He is responsible for the civil affairs, finance, water conservancy, criminal affairs, military and salt affairs of the area under his jurisdiction, and is responsible for the security With smooth water transportation and the right to regulate rivers, it is really an alternative to officialdom.

The three-thousand-mile canal spans several provinces and is a land of plenty for four prefectures and three states. It involves so many departments and links that all ministries and departments have to set up branches in Huai'an to cooperate with the governor of water transportation.

If the governor is weak-willed, indecisive, and has short sleeves...

Without what-ifs, such a person would not be able to climb to the position of governor!

Take the grain unloading process in water transportation as an example. The person responsible for transportation is the Cao Army. The Cao Army comes from the garrison troops in various places. The local superior of the army is the commander, and the commander's immediate boss is the Fifth Army Governor's Office in the capital. , but the Fifth Army Governor's Office only has the authority to control military registration and training. The power to mobilize the army and the power to select officers lies with the Ministry of War, and the Minister of the Ministry of War or the Minister often appear in the post of Governor...

Su Ya couldn't help but stare at Shen Huai. She had been hearing about such a convoluted relationship for a long time, but then she broke it into pieces and asked many officials and family members in the back house before she finally figured it out. But observing Shen Huai's demeanor, these are not difficult for him at all.

So, who is he?

Keng! Keng!

Shen Huai knocked on the table, "Why are you so dazed? Let's talk about Hu Xing, does he have someone to rely on behind him? Or is there something wrong with Governor Cao?"

"The governor of Cao didn't hear anything was wrong. He set off to Yangzhou and other places on the third day of the new year to inspect the preparations for the ships to pass through the lock."

Su Ya thought thoughtfully, and then her expression calmed down, "Thinking about it this way, Governor Cao happened to be at odds with Xie Youlin!"

One just left Huai'an, and the other came here a little bit later.

Shen Huai frowned slightly but said nothing.

Su Ya continued what she had said before: "Everything seems to be normal at Caodu's place, but Hu Xing, who is in charge of Cao's political participation, seems to have just embraced the lap of a big shot in the capital in the past two years."

"The year before last, Hu Xing and the water transport commander escorted grain to Beijing. After returning, he and the Xie family started walking around, and their contacts with the capital increased."

"The big shot in the capital is Xie Youlin?" Shen Huai raised his eyebrows slightly and said, "Xie Youlin has not supported his ability to climb to the position of governor."

"I don't understand this," Su Ya spread her hands, "I just saw him meet privately with Wang Ji from the Ministry of Revenue a few times and ask Wang Ji to put something on the boat and transport it to Beijing."

"What?"

"All kinds of good things," Su Ya counted on her fingers. "The boats have everything. In addition to food, there are also tributes from various places, rare treasures, utensils and fabrics, delicacies, calligraphy and painting, ancient books, and soldiers. Bringing the things traded along the way, he asked Wang Ji to handle the cargo list first, but I didn't remember the details carefully."

This does not sound unusual, and the duties of contacting Hu Xing and Wang Jixian are actually well established.

Shen Huai tapped his fingers on his knees subconsciously, and then asked her: "In what year did Wang Jixian arrive at the Water Transport Department? Where does he usually work?"

"I didn't pay attention to the time. I should be doing customs clearance during my daily work. The ships that come and go pay customs duties, but all I see is cash."

Cash, easy to operate.

Shen Huai heard the unfinished meaning in her words, pondered for a moment, and then asked: "What news did you hear in Xie's Mansion that day?"

Speaking of this, Su Ya thought of her embarrassment last night. She had heard a lot. Does the ditty count?

Xie Youlin is an old pervert, but fortunately he is still a court official who specializes in official evaluation. He is dressed like a beast.

Blushing just thinking about it, Su Ya tried her best to keep a straight face and replied dryly: "Xie Youlin seems to be Hu Xing's cousin."

Shen Huai saw Su Ya's face suddenly turn red and stared at it twice more in surprise. Is there something wrong?

However, Xie Youlin and Hu Xing were cousins ​​and nephews. He had heard it with his own ears at the teahouse that day. Su Ya did not lie. He could not see the reason for her blushing. Seeing that Su Ya's eyes were wandering, she would never look at him. Then he asked: "Why are you blushing suddenly?"

"Who's blushing?" Su Ya glared at him angrily, causing Gao Jun next to him to cough twice as a warning.

Shen Huai looked at Gao Jun and saw that he was winking, so he gave Gao Jun a cold look and didn't ask any more questions.

A woman's mind is changeable, so as long as it doesn't affect him, she is out of his attention.

The deputy of the governor and the person in charge of the merit examination department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs are cousins ​​and nephews, so there is a lot of room for maneuver.

Liu Yun, the chief criminal officer at that time, clearly disapproved of colluding with Zhao Qing. Later, when he heard that it was related to promotion, he complied with it. I wonder if there was a connection between Hu Xing and Hu Xing behind it?

Speaking of which, although the Cao Governor has the management power over the officials stationed by various ministries and divisions, he does not have the power to appoint and remove officials. The appointment and dismissal of the stationed personnel are still under the control of the original ministry. Therefore, Shen Huai almost immediately appointed Cao Governor Qiu Naicheng The suspicion was eliminated.

Shen Huai replayed the news in his mind, but for the moment he couldn't see what kind of obstacles they could cause for him.

(End of chapter)