amaotonovel Chapter 372 This is treating Zhu Chongba like a fool!
Chapter 372 This is treating Zhu Chongba like a fool!
The famous decadent writer Zhang Pei once said: If all the officials of the Ming Dynasty were executed one by one, there would definitely be innocent ones. But if every other one was executed, many would escape justice.
Yang Shaofeng agreed with Mr. Zhang Pei.
The two bastards, Xu Zheng, the magistrate of Zhaoyuan County before him, and Fang Kejian, the magistrate of Zhaoyuan County before him, were so damning that even shooting them with a Gatling gun that spews blue flames for ten minutes wouldn't be enough to satisfy my hatred.
The topography and land features of Zhaoyuan are similar to those of Laiyang and Qixia. Although the land is not fertile, Zhaoyuan has many rivers and does not suffer from droughts or floods as frequently as Qixia.
If those two bastards, Xu Zheng and Fang Kejian, could treat the people even a tiny bit better and pay more attention to agriculture, it wouldn't be too difficult for Zhaoyuan County to develop. In about five years, it could leap from a lower-level county to a higher-level county.
Unfortunately, Xu Zheng and Fang Kejian, those two bastards, did nothing right. Together, they wasted three years of development time for Zhaoyuan County.
On the contrary, Yang Shaofeng was very impressed by the performance of the newly appointed magistrate, Liu Jinxue.
To be fair, Liu Jinxue was somewhat of a bookworm. His views and methods on many things were heavily influenced by his bookish nature. He would be a reliable choice to be an inspector, but not quite up to the task of being a county magistrate or other official of a close rank.
But Liu Jinxue did not live up to his name.
Although he didn't know when spring plowing would begin, how difficult plowing would be, or what to plant after spring, Liu Jinxue was willing to humble himself and ask the people for their opinions.
Over the course of five days, Liu Jinxue followed Yang Shaofeng around various villages and rivers in Zhaoyuan during the day, and returned to the city at night to ask the locals how to cultivate the land.
When Yang Shaofeng was preparing to return to Ningyang County, Liu Jinxue had already figured out the spring plowing season in Zhaoyuan County, the main crops planted in Zhaoyuan County, and even the flood and drought cycles of the seasonal rivers in Zhaoyuan County.
"Before the spring, I would like to organize the people to hunt wild boars, wolves, badgers, foxes, raccoons and other wild animals, in order to prevent these animals from harming the people after the spring."
"As for after the spring, I plan to visit all the villages outside the city to see how the people of Zhaoyuan County are farming before making a decision."
"As for those seasonal rivers, I was thinking of finding a decent valley or a place where we could store water, and then organize the people to build a reservoir after autumn, and then connect the reservoir to the people's fields with ditches."
Liu Jinxue explained his plans to Yang Shaofeng point by point, and then looked at Yang Shaofeng with some trepidation and said, "However, organizing the people to build a reservoir is a very important matter. I... I would like to ask Your Excellency to send someone over to give me some guidance."
Yang Shaofeng hummed in agreement and replied, "Let's wait until after autumn. Come to the government office before autumn, and I will arrange manpower for you."
Turning his head to glance at the dilapidated Zhaoyuan County, Yang Shaofeng smiled and said, "Work hard. As long as you put what you just said into practice, the people of Zhaoyuan County will surely become prosperous."
……
Just as Yang Shaofeng was giving Liu Jinxue, the newly appointed magistrate of Zhaoyuan County, a pep talk, Emperor Zhu was raging in the capital.
"Several hundred counties!"
"These bastards all think we're fools!"
"These bastards! They have failed the people's offerings, and they have made us fail the people's offerings as well. They are the sinners of the Ming Dynasty!"
"And yet, someone still pleads for them, and someone even writes a petition for us!"
"Look at the reasons these bastards came up with."
"The journey is long, so this is a temporary measure."
"There is only an empty seal and no other sin."
"Following the old system, which is not prohibited by law."
"They're treating Zhu Chongba like a fool!"
Seeing the incessant cursing of Emperor Zhu, Li Shanchang, who had just recovered from his illness and returned to work, almost fainted.
Liu Bowen, sitting next to Li Shanchang, pretended to be stupid with his eyes closed.
Only after Emperor Zhu had calmed down did Liu Bowen stroke his beard and say, "Your Majesty, I have already verified those claims about the long distances involved."
"Of the 653 blank-printed registers of money and grain, the Jiangnan region accounts for the majority, while the more remote areas such as Shanxi, Gansu, Shaanxi, and Shandong have very few prefectures and counties using blank printing."
"It is clear that the idea that the journey is long and the solution is merely a stopgap measure is utterly absurd."
"As for the claim that there is only an empty seal and no other crime, and that it is a continuation of the old system and not prohibited by law, it is utterly absurd."
“If there are blank seals but no actual numbers, and each pair is checked to find out the forgery, countless amounts of money and grain can be embezzled in the process. Even if there is only one case of forgery and embezzlement among the 653 blank seals of money and grain, it cannot be said that there are blank seals but no other crimes.”
"As for the old system... I remember that in the first year of Hongwu, His Majesty had already issued an edict to abolish all foreign customs. Foreign Yuan bad habits such as blank printing of money and grain registers were naturally among those prohibited, so there is no way to say that they were not prohibited."
"..."
Liu Bowen's mouth opened and closed, constantly spitting out deadly blades.
Li Shanchang's eyes widened even more; if it weren't for the eye sockets, his eyeballs would probably have fallen to the ground.
Liu Qingtian has gone mad!
Li Shanchang, who had just returned to work, thought it was another case of Yang Dianfeng stirring up trouble over blank seals. After all, Dengzhou Prefecture was facing a serious shortage of manpower, and Yang Shaofeng had asked Emperor Zhu for manpower more than once.
This time, it's possible that Yang the Madman was short of manpower again, which is why he exposed the matter of printing blank money and grain registers, hoping to use Emperor Zhu's hand to transfer some exiled officials' relatives to Dengzhou.
But to everyone's surprise, this time it wasn't Yang Dianfeng who caused it, but Liu Qingtian who went mad!
Especially now, Emperor Zhu was already furious, and Liu Qingtian not only didn't try to put out the fire, but instead added fuel to the fire!
No, what exactly is Old Liu trying to do?
Just as Li Shanchang was pondering this, Emperor Zhu sat back down on his dragon throne, gave a forced smile and hummed twice, looking at Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen, and said, "Brother Shanchang, Mr. Qingtian, we have even more interesting news here, which I'm afraid you don't know yet."
Li Shanchang was slightly taken aback, and looked at Emperor Zhu, saying, "Your Majesty, what is some more interesting news?"
Emperor Zhu grabbed a piece of paper from the table and had Chen Zhong give it to Li Shanchang before saying in a deep voice, "We killed those bastards Yang Xian and Sun Gupu too early; they got off too easily."
Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen were stunned by what Emperor Zhu said.
Although Yang Xian and Sun Gupu both died during the Plowshare Case, Yang Xian's official cause of death was dereliction of duty, but the actual cause of death was getting too close to the Jiangdong gentry group. Sun Gupu, on the other hand, simply died because of rebellion. Normally, no one would put the two of them together.
Unfortunately, Emperor Zhu listed Yang Xian and Sun Gupu together, and even said that they were killed too early.
Is there something else going on here?