People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 641 The Sky Collapses (End)

"I have seen your work in office over the years, and you have done a good job."

Xu Chen lying on the bed lowered his eyelids and his tone was clearly weak. The strong aura of dusk could be clearly felt by anyone who was in the room.

Zhou Liang's heart was suddenly shrouded in gloom. He had a premonition of what would happen today, which made him stare at Xu Chen in a daze for a long time without any reaction.

He never expected that when he saw Xu Chen again today, he would have to face such a scene. He couldn't even imagine Xuan Xia's future after losing this man. It was a kind of confusion and panic as if the sky was falling.

It was not until Xu Chen, who had been silent, spoke again that Zhou Liang was forced to suppress the grief in his heart and respond.

"My little achievement is nothing. The principal and the previous prime ministers have already done all the difficult things that should be done. Now the world is handed over to me. I don't seek to make progress, I will be satisfied if I just want to maintain the status quo."

"It's better to keep the status quo."

Xu Chen chuckled and said softly, "When doing work, you always have to alternate between relaxation and tension. It is natural for predecessors to open up new paths and successors to maintain the original intention. If you can finish the work you are supposed to do well, it will be a complete success. Even if there are some flaws in some things, I will not blame you. After all, who can be perfect?"

Zhou Liang was a little ashamed when he heard this. "I have heard about what happened in this county. The court has tried its best to govern the officials, but collusion between officials and businessmen still occurs one after another. As the prime minister, I have the responsibility to govern my subordinates strictly. I hope the principal will punish me."

"Collusion between officials and businessmen?"

Xu Chen was stunned for a moment, and finally raised his eyelids a little more to look at Zhou Liang, but he soon came to his senses.

I have previously thought that local officials were colluding with illegal businessmen to protect those factory owners so blatantly, but the final facts were unexpected. Now Zhou Liang has fallen into the same misconception as me.

Who would have thought that the actions of local officials were not driven by the transfer of interests, but were completely spontaneous and voluntary.

"I have already investigated this matter. Local officials have not colluded with businessmen. If it is really just corruption, it is not a big deal. I will not force you to come from the capital."

Zhou Liang was stunned for a moment, but before he could think about it, he saw Xu Chen pointing at something on the table next to him.

"This is a detailed report on the county's official administration in recent years. After you read it, you will naturally understand."

Following Xu Chen's instruction, Zhou Liang set his eyes on a document on the desk. Although he was still full of doubts at this moment, he still patiently read it first.

The room fell silent again. Xu Chen did not urge anyone but just closed his eyes and rested again. Only Zhou Liang was left wiping the sweat from his forehead while flipping through the documents.

At first, Zhou Liang didn't see anything strange about it. It was just an ordinary assessment of official duties.

Every year, the Ministry of Personnel of the Central Government will conduct an administrative assessment on all officials across the country. Regardless of their position, there are corresponding quantitative indicators, which make it easy to see how well the officials are doing their work. The results of the assessment will largely determine the future prospects and destiny of the officials.

This form is undoubtedly advanced enough, at least it is fairer and more standardized than the protection and recommendation of the gentry.

Zhou Liang could clearly see from the official administration assessment in his hand that the official administration situation in the county was actually quite good. The county's factories, taxes, employment and other indicators all exceeded the county average. To be able to achieve such results in this relatively backward place in the south, it can only be said that the work was done very well.

Judging from this achievement, officials in this county will soon receive notice of promotion if nothing unexpected happens.

However, Zhou Liang reacted quickly. If nothing unexpected happened, this seemingly fine or even excellent administrative assessment should be the motivation of local officials to strongly protect local merchants.

“Is that so?”

Zhou Liang's face suddenly turned ugly. Besides feeling absurd, he also felt chilled.

He also suddenly understood why Xu Chen took such a small matter so seriously that he had to ask him, the prime minister, to come all the way to deal with it.

"Tell me, is Xuan Xia's surname Shang or Min now?" When Zhou Liang was silent and embarrassed, Xu Chen asked with his eyes closed, which made his face even stiffer.

He almost blurted out the answer. Xuan Xia puts the people first and his surname is the people. This is an answer that does not require any hesitation. However, the official assessment in his hand made him hold his words back. He found that he could not say this answer at all, or he was too embarrassed to make such an answer.

What is scary is that there is no need for collusion between officials and businessmen. Officials will spontaneously stand with businessmen, and the reason for this may even come from the central government, or even from him as the prime minister.

Seeing Zhou Liang fall into silence, Xu Chen did not blame him for anything. Instead, he smiled and comforted him.

"You don't have to think too much. There is no easy job. It's good enough to be able to do what you have now. This is the truth. If you want to pursue the good, you may have to be prepared to bear the bad."

Even so, such comfort did not make Zhou Liang relax much, but instead made him feel more ashamed and self-blaming.

This seemingly ordinary incident actually revealed a huge problem, but as the prime minister, he was completely unaware of this problem, which was undoubtedly a huge dereliction of duty.

After a long silence, Zhou Liang closed the book and then sighed, not knowing whether he was talking to himself or confiding in others.

"There are many voices in all walks of life in the court and among the people. The president should have heard some of them. Some people are shouting for eating from the same pot and pursuing absolute peace and complete collectivism, while others are shouting for deepening marketization and using the so-called invisible big hand to regulate everything.

These voices became increasingly sharp, and everyone was waiting for the court to send a clear signal, but the students just couldn't make up their minds. If they made a mistake, they would be doomed, and there might be no turning back. The students did not have the courage to use the entire country's people for such a social experiment.

Students are dull and can neither see right from wrong nor guess the future. After thinking about it, they can only think that getting rich is always right, so they will focus on economic development first. But they didn't expect that even this thing that is definitely right is not so easy to do. "

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Having said this, Zhou Liang lowered his head and smiled bitterly.

"The central government said that the economy comes first, but this guy only has money on his mind. The central government uses economic indicators as the main assessment, but this guy dares to only look at economic indicators. The funny thing is that he has achieved the "results" that the central government wants to see. No wonder he is willing to go against the people for the sake of businessmen."

Xu Chen smiled. After hearing these words, he knew that the purpose of calling Zhou Liang over had been achieved.

Calling Zhou Liang over was not intended to scold him, but just to let Zhou Liang see the problem clearly himself. After all, this kind of thing is not even a question of right or wrong, it's just a matter of making choices. Even he himself couldn't do much better than Zhou Liang.

To enjoy the dividends of development, we must naturally be prepared to endure the pains of development. The only problem is that we cannot ignore this pain. Only when we know the pain can we balance the relationship between disadvantages and advantages.

Zhou Liang raised his head and looked at Xu Chen. There was confusion in his eyes, but more of it was a request for help: "If you were the principal, this kind of thing would not be difficult for you!"

Xu Chen smiled dumbly, then shook his head: "This world is yours, I believe you will do a good job of this"

After the words fell, Xu Chen felt as if the last stone in his heart fell to the ground safely, and then an incomparable sense of stability and satisfaction filled his body, just like a heavy burden had been unloaded. He gained the most relaxing experience in his life, and his mind slowly emptied until everything returned to silence.

The room fell into extreme silence. Xu Chen sat cross-legged on the couch, smiling faintly, without moving an inch. His closed eyelids no longer moved at all.

Zhou Liang's breathing suddenly stopped, and then his whole body froze in place.

He just felt that the sky was falling!

A long time passed, so long that Tian Jianguo, who was outside the room, also felt that something was wrong. With an ominous premonition in his heart, he was about to open the door and go in to check the situation.

However, just as he turned around, the tightly closed door was pushed open, and then Zhou Liang, looking a little dazed, walked out.

Zhou Liang held on to the door with his hands to keep himself steady. He suppressed his grief and looked at Zhou Jianguo, then slowly closed his eyes.

"Send a telegram immediately to inform the world that the saint has passed away and the country is in mourning!"

(End of this chapter)