I embezzled 100,000 taels at the beginning, and the empress begged me to be more greedy

“This handwriting is really beautiful.”

Jiang Zuo opened the letter and saw the following words written on it:

"I am relieved to hear that you are fine. My servant is already in Anding County. If you write back, I can give the letter to him. I will go to Anding after you recover. Please take good care of yourself. See you later..."

Jiang Zuo put away the letter and murmured, "It means that she won't come if I'm not feeling well. Sigh, pretending to be sick is really tiring."

He thought about it and picked up the pen. "To Miss Chen, I have actually fully recovered. It's just that I have been busy recently and don't want to be disturbed by some unnecessary people, so I announced that I was ill. If Miss Chen wants to visit Anding County, you can do so at any time. I have ordered people to prepare some fireworks in advance and I am waiting for Miss Chen to come and watch them together. There is no need to be polite in the future, just call me Jiang Zuo..."

Jiang Zuo put down his pen, blew the ink dry, put it into an envelope, and ordered Master Guo to send it out, repeatedly reminding him to keep it confidential.

Master Guo promised repeatedly, and then handed the letter to the "servant" of the Chen family.

Less than a day later, Master Guo came with another letter.

"A reply so soon?"

Jiang Zuo suddenly jumped up from the bed and snatched the letter from the master's hand.

"Hmm? Why are they a little different?" Jiang Zuo wondered.

Master Guo lowered his voice and said, "Sir, this is a letter from His Majesty!"

"Take it, take it."

Jiang Zuo threw the letter aside with disgust.

"Sir, a letter from His Majesty is equivalent to an imperial decree. You must not neglect it."

Master Guo said quickly.

Jiang Zuo reluctantly opened the letter and had no intention of reading it carefully. He just glanced at it and saw that the content was roughly about asking Jiang Zuo to come to Beijing as soon as possible, and if his illness was not cured, he would be ordered to be taken to Beijing for treatment.

"This handwriting is really ugly. A woman can write such ugly words."

Jiang Zuo put away the letter, fell back, and lay back on the bed.

"Sir, please keep your voice down..."

Master Guo looked around in panic and asked, "Sir, how long are you going to delay this?"

"Now I just have to compete with the empress in patience. Anyway, I can still continue to pretend."

Jiang Zuo disagreed.

Now, all his energy every day is spent on writing letters and talking with Miss Chen.

But the transportation and mail were slow, and the words sounded a bit unfamiliar.

It would be a wonderful thing if I could meet Miss Chen Siyue again.

……

Imperial City.

Chen Qingyun silently opened the letter from Jiang Zuo to "Chen Siyue", and then frowned.

There was now a hint of ferocity on the originally beautiful face.

"I have fully recovered, but I have been busy lately and don't want to be disturbed by unnecessary people..."

Chen Qingyun read the contents of the letter quietly.

"Useless person?"

Who said this?

"How dare you, Jiang Zuo, pretend to be sick and deceive me!"

When replying to Chen Siyue, it means "there is nothing serious", but when facing me, Chen Qingyun, it means "I am seriously ill".

If Jiang Zuo is not taught a lesson, he will never know the word fear.

She dropped the letter and calmed down a little.

Thinking back, she realized that she had urged Jiang Zuo again and again, but he refused again and again.

It seems that he really doesn't want to go to Beijing.

After thinking it over, Chen Qingyun was a little hesitant. She had a strong personality, but now she no longer wanted to force Jiang Zuo to come to Beijing.

Chen Qingyun understood that a forced melon is not sweet.

She wants to discuss terms with Jiang Zuo.

After thinking about it, I picked up the pen again.

……

Anding County.

In Jiang Zuo's room.

The master came to Jiang Zuo with a plate of fragrant grilled chicken wings.

Jiang Zuo opened the package, tasted it anxiously, and said, "Master, these chicken wings taste wrong, aren't they from Fulinji?"

"Your Excellency, Fulin's is closed today. I bought the one on Second Street."

"The taste is just average, don't buy from this store next time."

"Yes, my lord."

At this moment, the door was suddenly pushed open.

It turned out that the master forgot to lock the door when he came in.

The one who pushed the door open was none other than Ma Hengwei, commander of the Thousand Cavalry Division.

The atmosphere fell into an eerie silence.

Jiang Zuo and Ma Hengwei looked at each other, feeling a little awkward.

"My lord, you have a good appetite."

After a moment, Ma Hengwei said calmly, his face still expressionless, without any expression on his face.

"Master Ma, good afternoon..." Jiang Zuo sat on the bed, still chewing the chicken in his mouth.

"It seems that the master's illness has improved a lot." Ma Hengwei said.

Jiang Zuo licked his lips and smiled, "Thanks to the good medicine prescribed by the imperial physician, I feel better now, but I am still weak... By the way, why did Lord Ma come here?"

Ma Hengwei knew it very well. He said in a cold voice, "Your Majesty's decree."

Master Guo hurried forward and knelt down.

Jiang Zuo slowly stood up, wiped his hands, and stepped forward to receive the order.

"Jiang Zuo's entry into the capital will be postponed for the time being. If Jiang Zuo has no intention of entering the capital and wants to serve as the magistrate of Anding County, he only needs to fulfill one condition."

"condition?"

Jiang Zuo's eyes lit up.

"From now on, Jiang Zuo will serve as the governor-general of Zhenbei, and will control the floods in Jizhou and Yuzhou and properly deal with the victims. If he can complete the task on time, he can stay in Anding County and receive a reward of 200,000 taels of silver."

Two hundred thousand!

Hearing that there was money to be made, Jiang Zuo immediately perked up.

As long as he could manage the disaster in Jizhou and Yuzhou well, he could return to being the magistrate of Anding County and would not have to go to Beijing to be an official. This was exactly what Jiang Zuo wanted.

"I also want to negotiate a condition with His Majesty."

At this time, Jiang Zuo spoke.

"Ok?"

Ma Hengwei was surprised.

No one has ever been able to negotiate any terms with the emperor.

This Jiang Zuo really doesn't know whether he lives or dies.

Then Jiang Zuo said, "If we want to completely deal with the disaster in Jizhou and Yuzhou, we will need a lot of silver. Two hundred thousand taels are not enough. At least... one million taels is needed."

"One million taels?"

Ma Hengwei's face was grim.

The two hundred thousand taels promised by Your Majesty was a reward, not disaster relief money.

This Jiang Zuo is really good at asking for a lot of money. He started asking for money before he even started doing anything.

As a commander of the Thousand Cavalry Division, Ma Hengwei would have certainly been angry in the past when faced with such an arrogant local magistrate.

But this time, things are very different.

Ma Hengwei obviously realized that His Majesty valued Jiang Zuo, otherwise he would not have issued edicts so many times, asking Jiang Zuo to come to Beijing.

At least Ma Hengwei himself admitted that Jiang Zuo was quite capable.

"I will convey Lord Jiang's words to Your Majesty."

……

The emperor's palace.

"One million taels?"

Chen Qingyun was reading the memorial from Anding County.

"Money, money, money. What else does Jiang Zuo care about besides money?"

She threw down the memorial, her face full of displeasure.

The two places of Yuzhou and Jizhou have already made Chen Qingyun extremely anxious.

If the disaster victims are still not properly dealt with, it is likely to develop into a peasant uprising and the people will suffer.

Most of the ministers in the court have ulterior motives.

Chen Qingyun couldn't quite believe it.

On the contrary, Jiang Zuo is definitely the right candidate.

One million is one million!

"Pass on my oral order, and appoint Jiang Zuo as the governor-general of Zhenbei. He is to leave immediately tomorrow. I want him to produce results within a month, otherwise he will be brought to the capital to be punished!"