Qing Yao

Chapter 67 If you don’t pay, I will pay

Those who do not plan for the world are not enough for a moment; those who do not plan for the overall situation are not enough for one area.

If you want to survive in the Qing Dynasty, there is no way you can avoid getting involved in dirty things.

What's more, he had just covered up a case that might have been the biggest literary case before Jiaqing ascended the throne, and everything about him was fake.

Just when he was feeling anxious, the imperial court came up with a good policy of paying money to avoid going to jail. Zhao An was sure to respond positively.

Whether you want peace of mind or buy insurance, just treat this money as feeding the dog.

As for Tong Xundao’s refusal to pay the money, it is a typical act of going against the imperial court!
To put it in a broader sense, it means that their ideological awareness is not in place and they don't know how to help the court solve problems;

If you read it in a novel, it would be short-sighted. You only know that home comes before country, but you don't know that there is no home without country.

It's his due that he is still a ninth-rank official at the age of forty.

Which official has a clean ass?

If we don't take advantage of the favorable policies to plug the loopholes now, will we wait until the handcuffs come before crying out for justice?

Zhao An disdained to associate with a bug like Tong Xundao. After finding out that the silver for discussing the crime had to be paid to the government office, he prepared to take a taxi and rush over, no matter how much it was, he would just pay it first.

When he arrived at the gate, the doorman stopped him and told him that a letter was sent to Zhao Xuelu from Beijing two days ago, but because Zhao Xuelu was on a business trip, the letter was left at the doorman's office.

Zhao An knew that it was most likely a letter from Wu Weiping, who came to Beijing to work as a teacher, so he quickly took it and opened it to read.

After reading it, he nodded slightly. Everything went smoothly for Old Wu. As soon as he paid the registration fee of 200 taels to the Ministry of Personnel, he was arranged to go to the Imperial College as a seventh-rank doctor.

He suffered a bit of a disadvantage in terms of rank, because the two lists of Jinshi who were sent out were at least seventh rank, and those who stayed in Beijing could even be given sixth rank.

Unfortunately, Old Wu hasn't worked for 30 years, and this part of his resume is blank. It can be said that his official career is basically over. It is considered good to be able to be treated as a seventh-rank teacher.

The Imperial College must have made arrangements for accommodation. Old Wu didn't say anything else in the letter. He basically just wanted to tell Zhao An that I had started working.

After putting down the letter, Zhao An thought about it and did not rush to the government office to pay the silver for his crime. Instead, he called a mule cart and went to the money shop, where he exchanged the 5,000 taels of silver notes given by Dongtai County for smaller denominations of 100 taels and 200 taels.

After coming out, he found a fortune-telling and writing stall on the side of the road and borrowed a pen and paper for five cents. He then wrote a letter back to Old Wu at the stall and attached a silver note for two hundred taels.

The money shops behind the silver notes were run by salt merchants, and they could be exchanged across the country.

The purpose of doing so is nothing more than consolidating the relationship with Old Wu, hoping that the old man will listen to his arrangements obediently, so that he can play the role of a "surprise soldier" at a critical moment and catch the eye of Jiaqing, thus becoming successful, and in turn helping Zhao An.

The identity of a Jinshi is still a rare commodity.

Even if Zhao An was beaten to death, he would not dare to get himself a fake Jinshi degree, because that thing really exists on the Xuexin website of the Ministry of Personnel.

The letters were sent through the official post station. These days, the official post station has evolved into a place similar to the post office. The post station makes a little money from it, and the local officials turn a blind eye and do not ask about it.

Zhao An was familiar with the government office, so after entering, he went straight to the Experience Office, the agency that was responsible for paying the fines for crimes. When he arrived, he found that at least half of his original acquaintances were gone.

He immediately realized that the new prefect must have arrived and the government office had undergone a major reshuffle.

Zhao An really had no idea who the new Yangzhou prefect was or what his background was. Anyway, he had no dealings with the Yangzhou government.

After explaining their purpose, the people from the Experience Department were a little confused. So far, no official had come to pay the fine.

The court's notice on discussing criminal silver was only conveyed to all places three days ago. In Yangzhou, due to the appointment of a new prefect, the government system was in a state of "chaos", so no one was responsible for this matter.

This matter has caused a lot of discussion in the officialdom, and many officials think that this practice is too ridiculous.

Many imperial censors in the capital wrote letters opposing this plan, arguing that using money as a substitute for guilt would embolden officials who had paid the silver, exacerbating corruption. Those officials who had paid the silver would undoubtedly exploit the people even more severely in order to recoup their expenses.

Moreover, using money as a substitute for crime and not prosecuting the guilty would render the laws of the Qing Dynasty meaningless.
In short, there was strong opposition to the negotiation of criminal silver from both the imperial court and local governments, so it was still unknown whether this matter could eventually become a final rule.

Many officials who want to take advantage of loopholes are now watching and waiting, fearing that the system will be cancelled after they pay the money, and then all their efforts will be in vain.

For Zhao An, it means he came too early.

"What? I can't pay the silver for the crime?" Zhao An didn't know that he came too early. He thought that his rank was not high enough and people would not accept his money. He couldn't help feeling uneasy.

The receiving official, Governor Guo, thought for a moment and said politely, "Zhao Xuelu, please wait a moment. I'll go down and ask about the silver penalty."

"it is good,"

Zhao An nodded and sat there waiting patiently.

After leaving, Governor Guo went directly to the government hall to find the senior advisor Sun brought by the new governor, and inquired in detail about the specific handling of the criminal silver.

"The government is only collecting the money for the criminal case. The collected money will be sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs after it is compiled."

The Guangchusi of the Imperial Household Department was the personal account of Emperor Qianlong. The silver voluntarily paid by officials from all over the country would be aggregated at the first level of the government and transferred into the account of the emperor.

Funds must not be withheld or misappropriated and must be used for their intended purposes.

After explaining the process in detail, when Mr. Sun heard Governor Guo say that a ninth-rank student in the provincial school had to pay a fine for his crime, he became troubled.

Although the imperial court did not stipulate how much officials of different ranks had to pay, it was a bit confusing that a minor official of the ninth rank had to pay silver for his crime, and he was just a school official.

I don’t understand, I really don’t understand.

So Mr. Sun went to the prefect and told him what had happened. The prefect was busy setting prices for the various items in the prefecture so that they could be sold quickly to make money. He had no time to care whether a small official of the ninth rank paid the fine for his crime.

Let Master Sun and the others handle it themselves.

With the prefect's words, Mr. Sun came over in person to see which idiot was throwing money out for nothing.

When he entered the room and saw Zhao An sitting there, he asked, "You want to pay the fine for the crime?"

"Hey, hey, it's your subordinate who wants to hand it over!"

As he spoke, Zhao An had already stood up, not daring to neglect the other party.

After carefully examining the idiot, Master Sun frowned slightly and asked, "How much do you want to pay?"

"I wonder how much the court stipulates that an official of my rank must pay?"

Zhao An's counter-question made Master Sun a little embarrassed, as he didn't know either.

Then he asked in return: "How much do you want to pay?"

"I really don't know how much I should pay. Please give me a realistic figure, sir."

Zhao An was very respectful.

"Are you sure you really want to pay the fine? Let me be honest with you. So far, no official in this government has handed in the fine. If you really want to pay, you might as well wait for a while."

Master Sun also had good intentions and didn't want this ninth-rank primary school official to waste his money.

But the elementary school official in front of him was determined to hand it over no matter what.

"If you insist on handing it over, I won't be able to say more to you."

Master Sun shook his head and looked at the governor Guo beside him. The latter looked at Zhao An, who looked serious and said, "Zhao Xuelu's annual salary is only thirty or forty taels. How about this? You pay fifty taels."

"Fifty taels?"

Zhao An was stunned for a moment, then asked weakly, "Is there really no other adult in the mansion paying the money right now?"

The answer is yes.

"That's it,"

Zhao An nervously took out a stack of banknotes from his pocket and gently placed them on the table. "I am willing to pay a thousand taels of silver for the crime."

(End of this chapter)