New Shun 1730

Chapter 1017: All pretending to be stupid (Part 1)

I recited two lines of Amitabha in my heart. After reciting it, my heart became even more ruthless, knowing that if I didn't complete the death case, I would be in a lot of trouble in the future.

"My lord, in addition to this, I think it is best to invite Governor Huanghuai, Lord Fu Yin and others to come together for this matter."

"Although according to the rules, the Duke of the State supervises all matters in the lower reaches of the Huaihe River and has the power to make decisions and march military laws. However, it is best to have more witnesses on this matter."

"Xiaguan people speak lightly, even if they don't care about their personal thoughts. If someone reverses the case in the future, officials like Xiaguan will not be able to do what they say accurately or count."

Liu Yu pondered for a moment, hummed, and said: "In that case, I will send someone to invite you."

The Funing County Magistrate secretly breathed a sigh of relief and thought that it was great for everyone to share the blame.

"Ling Funing, since you are an official here and are familiar with them, don't tell them about your upcoming death. Telling him in advance will make him worry and frighten him. He will have a mental breakdown in the days before his death. It is really not virtuous. I have a compassionate heart.”

After saying that, he walked out of the depression with his hands behind his back and asked people to go to Huai'an quickly to invite various officials here.

If it were not for the construction of the Huaihe River, Liu Yu would not be qualified to take care of the affairs of northern Jiangsu. But now he has not returned to Beijing to resume his duties, and the emperor has also confiscated his errand. It is justifiable for him to take care of this kind of thing.

When the Funing County Magistrate saw Liu Yu leaving, he thought to himself, "Master, you have really redefined what compassion is." They are all mortals, what do I have to talk about with them?

Thinking like this, he could only walk down the depression.

The bewildered squires gathered around him.

"My lord! My lord!"

"What does Xingguo Gong mean?"

"Sir, we were wronged."

"Sir, we realize our mistake. The money we deducted this time should be returned to the court. We will never dare to do it again in the future."

Some said they were wronged, some said they were wrong, and some said they would never dare to do it again.

The Funing County Magistrate, however, put on a business-like attitude and said seriously: "What does Xingguo Gong mean? Of course it will be dealt with impartially! You can't control your own hands, but you said something wrong at this time, what's the use?"

"Mencius said..."

After memorizing the sage's book, the rest is the standard official procedure.

In normal times, speaking in an official tone means either you are preparing to see off guests or you are preparing to collect money.

But at this time, the official tone was spoken, and the squires all panicked, knowing that they were not prepared to speak at all.

For a while, some people who had some contact with the Funing County Magistrate on weekdays gathered around him.

The Funing County Magistrate drank twice.

Several military discipline officers in blue trousers and blue-and-white helmets on the low ground rushed down with whips in hand when they saw this, along with a small group of soldiers.

"You're a bitch, why are you making such a fuss?"

The soldiers didn't care about this or that. When they saw the blue and white helmets, they took action. They didn't have any scruples. They just picked up the butts of their rifles and smashed them.

After all, Lianghuai is no better than the border areas. The squires here really rarely see soldiers like bandits. At this time, they can't help but have a deeper understanding of the four words "soldiers are as good as combs".

The Funing County Magistrate had a good heart, and if he made such a fuss, he could justifiably escape. So he just cursed a few times and ran out of the depression, thinking that it was bad luck and it would be best to stay away from the graveyard.

The squire who was beaten cried and hid aside. At this time, the squire who was not beaten came over and took out a box of cigarettes and handed them to the military discipline officer wearing a blue and white helmet. Although he did not know the status of these people in the army, he looked at the helmet. Unlike others, I thought he was an officer.

The soldier with blue and white helmets took the cigarette, took the whole package, and distributed it to the soldiers who followed him and rushed down to beat people.

The squire smiled and took out matches to light for these people, and then asked: "Fellow military lords, are you the soldiers of Duke Xingguo? But you don't know what is going on here? What does Duke Xing mean?"

The young officer took two puffs of cigarette, but his attitude was not friendly at all. He cursed: "You ask me, who am I asking? Besides, watch your mouth and don't be careless. Who told you that we are the Duke's personal soldiers? I I came from Tanegashima after receiving an order from my superiors. What does the Lord mean? Who dares to ask?"

The squire didn't know where this sub-island was, so he guessed it was somewhere far away. He kept saying, "Master, thank you for your hard work."

As soon as he said this, the officer became so angry that he threw the butt of his cigarette on the ground and cursed: "It's hard work! It's hard work! I had to order people to get on the boat. The brothers all thought there was a war. What a bitch!" Damn it, I made a bet before boarding the ship and lost all my military salary for several months! Who knew that instead of starting a war, I came to look after you? What a damn unlucky thing."

"I just heard that you are deducting food and grass? This is what brothers hate the most. Let me tell you, if you do something like this, if it is placed in the camp, it will be like dragging a dog to death. "

When the squire heard the words drag the dog to death, he shivered with fright and said quickly: "Master, calm down, sir, calm down. Even if we have thousands of courages, we don't dare to touch the military supplies. It's just that we were confused for a moment and moved." To move the common people.”

The young officer couldn't help but laugh and said: "You son of a bitch, what were you doing before I became a soldier? Of the two battalions stationed on Tanegashima, none of them came from a squire family. Either their whole family was wiped out by the disaster, or they were killed by you." These idiots collect rent and lend money.”

"In these days, as long as there is a way to survive, Sun Tzu will join the army. Not one of the navy sergeants has good teeth. He has to soak in the water to eat a pot helmet. Does he know what scurvy means and loses his teeth? He doesn't know what it means to be a navy. Rotten teeth, marines will die of fever and malaria sooner or later, are all the Japanese garrison infected with Ryukyu sores?”

While laughing, he whipped out a whip and whipped the gentry in the face, warning the surrounding gentry: "Be f*cking honest, don't make trouble. Do you see that line drawn with lime? The Duke has ordered that anyone who crosses the line will be shot on the spot, the same as charging the army."

After saying that, he led the people back to the depression.

After the group of soldiers said this, the gentry panicked even more, and they didn't know how much blood they would have to pay this time. I'm afraid that not only will they have to return all the money they have deducted and resold this time, but they may also be fined.

In the next few days, the gentry endured in this depression.

There were bonfires at night, and the army had its own food for meals, so they wouldn't be hungry or cold, but this kind of life was really a mental torture.

However, the white line drawn with lime was there, and no one dared to cross it, so they could only wait here.

While they were waiting here, the person that the Funing County Magistrate had been looking forward to to share the blame finally arrived.

The water from Hongze Lake, which opened the Gaojiayan sluice gate, has also flowed into the sea along the new Huaihe River. The sound of the water is not uncommon. The roar of the Yellow River can be heard from miles away. Mixed with the tide, the water of the Huaihe River is not surprising.

These tides and waves made the officials who just learned about this matter think quickly, and their thoughts were like waves hitting the shore.

The magistrate of Funing County has been thinking about the matter in the past few days, and gradually tasted some unusual tastes. One of the reasons why this matter can be accomplished is that the Yellow River has been constantly impacting and bursting over the years, pushing the land eastward for more than a hundred miles.

If Funing County is drawn, it is to the west of Fangong Dike. And Fangong Dike is still dozens of miles east to the sea.

There is basically a wasteland with no people, and the grain is transported in that kind of wasteland area. It is really difficult to get involved. This is simply the perfect black market environment created by heaven and earth.

The land was divided into sections and isolated. The gentry, relying on their role as a bridge between the lower-class people and the government, monopolized the interpretation of laws and policies.

In addition, the deserted land created a perfect black market environment. It would be strange if such a thing did not happen.

With many years of grassroots experience, the magistrate of Funing County understood that if he wanted to embezzle, the chief officer must take the lead. The question now is whether the Duke of Xingguo himself is the biggest person Liu Yu wants to deal with these people?

Where did the coarse grains come from? The gentry just made a difference in price. Where is the real big head? Could it be that the Duke of Xingguo wants to kill people to silence them?

That's not right. Killing people to silence them is not done this way.

This case is so big. It sounds like many people are going to be killed. The whole country will be shocked. Wouldn't it be more difficult to conceal it at that time?

Unless... unless the Duke of Xingguo himself did it?

After thinking through this joint, the magistrate of Funing County suddenly realized that no matter how strange this matter was, it was not strange. Ask what you should ask and don't ask what you shouldn't ask.

He had figured it out and didn't ask any random questions, but the other officials who were invited over thought more clearly.

This was not the past. It was normal to kill some people at the beginning of the founding of the country. But now it is a peaceful time. Killing so many people at once, and they are all gentry, this must be a major case that shocked the whole country.

They knew Liu Yu's character and it was indeed easy to cause trouble, but Liu Yu was generally too lazy to do such a shitty thing.

Anyway, I haven't heard of the folks compiling "Liu Gong'an" and I have never heard of Liu Yu's actions such as visiting the people and punishing the bad gentry. Instead, I heard that Liu Yu turned a blind eye and didn't even bother to manage it.

And what Liu Yu came from, these officials above the prefecture level knew it well.

Besides, a lot of people on the side of the Huanghuai Governor and Liao Hanhui came from the military. Liu Yu was in charge of the war against Japan and the war in the South China Sea. How could he not understand things like logistics supervision and have such a big loophole?

If it was really at this level, how would the war against Japan and the war in the South Seas be fought? The logistics, ammunition, supplies, and military supplies of tens of thousands of troops were all calculated clearly, and there were systems to follow for how to supervise each link.

At this point, "employ people with confidence, and don't employ people if you doubt them"?

The governor of Huanghuai thought to himself that these gentry were also "innocent" and guilty of possessing a treasure.

Now that the canal has been abandoned, the millions of canal workers have absorbed young and strong people into the wing army, and there are still a lot of people left. In addition, the changes in commerce along the way have also left a group of people.

What do these people do?

The court wants to resettle them, but can it afford it?

If they want to resettle them nearby, then don't they have to find land? The court doesn't have many official fields, or the places with official fields are either in the Western Regions or in the Whale Sea, and they can't afford to resettle these people.

Then can't they only look to the two Huai regions?

Huang Huai Governor thought, this is the emperor who wants to kill people, but the Duke of Xingguo has to bear the blame for the murder. Since he has to bear the blame, I can't help but oppose it.

This Funing County Magistrate is also smart. He knows that he wants to make it a death sentence, so what else can he say? He will be a witness himself, so that he can face it in the future and give an explanation to the gentry in the world.

Liao Hanhui, who is in charge of the Huaihe River engineering technology, thinks more directly.

The court repaired the Huaihe River to reduce the flood in Anhui and the risk of Hongze Lake bursting, but these are not directly profitable.

It may cost tens of millions to improve Huainan, just for these gentry?

In the future, we have to reclaim wasteland and increase taxes, and slowly earn back the money for repairing the Huaihe River. In addition, we have to repair seawalls and irrigation areas in the future. If we repair the Huaihe River in the same way as now, the court cannot afford it.

We have to organize the people and ask them to do the labor service. What can we do? Naturally, we should distribute the land equally so that the people have land in their hands and can do the labor service without causing civil unrest.

This is a simple matter. If these gentry are executed and the land is distributed equally to the people, the people need to pay the land money to the court. Isn't it just right to build river embankments and seawalls to pay off the debts?

The court doesn't spend a penny, and the people are still working hard.

The irrigation canal of the second phase project and the new tide embankment of the third phase project basically don't need to spend money.

Moreover, in the future, the land will be measured and taxes will be collected for reclamation. If the money for repairing the Huaihe River can irrigate 3 million mu of land, not to mention recovering the principal, the interest on the loan to the Netherlands every year will be more than enough.

Then the floods in Anhui, the danger of Hongze Lake bursting the embankment, and the disaster relief funds here, aren't they all earned in vain?

Liao Hanhui did some calculations in his mind and thought that if each household was given ten mu of land, the court would be merciful and accept 20 taels of silver from them.

In the future, the cost of repairing the river embankment and the tidal embankment would be two and a half taels of silver per month plus food expenses, which would be exactly eight months, just enough to complete the irrigation area and the tidal embankment.

If the purchase price of one mu of land was raised to three taels, the people would not spend a penny and would cheer and serve enthusiastically in rebuilding the Xia Fangong embankment.

Everyone pretended to be confused, knowing what was going on, so they pretended not to know what was going on.

Everyone knew that this was a matter of redistribution of the means of production, but they kept silent and pointed the finger at the "moral" issue.

"Withholding money and grain, especially for river engineering projects, is a serious crime!"

"Since the end of the previous dynasty, there have been endless incidents of gentry abusing their neighbors. These people really read the books of sages in vain. But they brought bad names to the court, and their crimes are unforgivable!"

"Moral corruption! Severe punishment is necessary to serve as a warning to others."

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