“You won’t know if you don’t check, but you’ll be shocked if you check!”
In the Yizhou post office, under the light, Li Jinglong said worriedly as he looked at the documents he had just sorted out in his hand about the deficit of various health stations along the way.
They first passed through Huai'an, then arrived at Yizhou, and were about to enter Qingzhou Prefecture, an important town in Shandong.
Along the way, the shortage of guard posts in the places we passed was shocking. Take the Yizhou Guard as an example, whether it is military warehouses or military camps, they have almost become the private property of thousands of households with hereditary commanders.
In fact, these things do not need to be investigated in a big way, they are just there, and even the local civil servants know about them.
"The further north you go, the more difficult it becomes to check. I guess there is a big hole in Qingzhou Prefecture!" Deng Duo looked at the document in his hand with a gloomy expression. (I have such a brain, I have messed up the names of people, it is really useless)
"Yes!" Li Jinglong sighed, "Northern!"
When Zhao Shi heard this, he raised his head in confusion, "Why does it become more difficult to check as you go north?"
"Because the further north you go, the deficit of each guard becomes bigger and bigger!" Deng Duo said in a low voice.
Zhao Shi was still puzzled, "Why?"
"The poorer the place, the more people are greedy!" Li Jinglong smiled slightly, "Why are we investigating from south to north? That's the reason!"
Zhao Shi frowned, becoming more and more confused the more he listened.
"The deficit in the military and the corruption of civilian officials are the same!" Li Jinglong rubbed his sore shoulders, "After all, the south is guarding the rivers, lakes and seas. There are not so many wars. The place is prosperous and stable, so whether it is a civilian official or a military attache, the money comes from
There are more places, so you don’t have to focus on this shady thing!"
Zhao Shi frowned and said in a deep voice, "But the south is not that rich. There is a large population, but the per capita cultivated land is less. Even in many mountainous areas, the per capita land is only a few cents!"
"Uncle Guo, you haven't looked deeper. To the north, Shandong in the Central Plains is adjacent to the Liaodong defense line. Every year, whether the imperial court goes out to the fortress or trains troops and horses in the fall, the money, food and civilians mobilized come from these places. In addition,
The population here is not as large as that in the south. In the last years of the previous dynasty, the population was wiped out to a tenth. In the thirty years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, even without the exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes imposed by the previous dynasty, the burden on us was not light. Military rations, horse breeding, corvee..."
"At least we don't have these things in the south, right? At least we don't have to help the court raise horses, we don't have to send masters to deliver food to the army, and we don't have to build cities outside the Great Wall in Liaodong, right?"
Seeing that Zhao Shi was deep in thought, Li Jinglong continued to smile and said, "The military attachés in the south are losing their money by embezzling farmland and drinking the blood of soldiers. In the north, because wars are going to happen at any time, pretending to receive military pay must be more powerful than in the south. Farming may not necessarily be occupied, but military warehouses
Ordnance and supplies, etc. must have been exploited at all levels, and there was even some contraband trading."
"Again, he has no other way to get money. Look at the Xuzhou Guard, they are guarding the canal! If he doesn't take the initiative to ask for money, someone will give it to him. Who will give it to the military attachés in the north? In recent years, the Tatars
I’ve learned so much that I won’t give away my head!”
"The same is true for civil servants!" Li Jinglong sighed and smiled bitterly, "With no one to show filial piety, we can only focus on the people, the government's allocations, and taxes."
Deng Duo also smiled bitterly, "Actually, it's easier to check here!"
He only said half of this sentence. These guard posts along the way are all bounded by Taiping in the north and south. How can we check when we actually reach the border, even if it is adjacent to the border?
A group of military attachés tore off their collars, their bodies covered with scars and arrow wounds. They shouted, "I'm working for the Ming Dynasty. Are you here to check me out?"
It's not that no one checked in the early years. A group of big-headed soldiers in Yulin Town directly hung the censor from a tree and hanged him alive!
"Then shall we investigate?" Zhao Shi asked with a wink.
"Ha, of course we have to investigate!" Li Jinglong smiled heartily, "We also need to investigate with great fanfare. The military attachés may not be afraid of civil servants, but they must not disrespect me!" He said, scratching his head and said, "Even if you disrespect me, there is still Guo Laohou in Huai'an.
Sitting in charge!"
Zhao Shi hesitated again, "Can we find out?"
These words made both Deng Duo and Li Jinglong grin.
"What is the matter in the world that has been investigated?" Li Jinglong sighed, "Investigation is for the people of the world."
Zhao Shi frowned, "What you said is a bit profound!"
"Let me compare it this way! It's like a corrupt official appears in a certain place. From the ninety-ninth to the lowest level, everyone knows that he is a corrupt official, but he still works as an official to make money. The people dare to be angry and dare not speak out, but there is nothing they can do! You say
, even the person who is going to commit the crime knows that he is a corrupt official, how can his superiors not know?"
Li Jinglong smiled and said, "At this time, some officials came from above and asked to check him! Is it necessary to check him? If he had been checked, he would have been whipped, and he would have revealed to you all the stuffed dumplings he had eaten last year! Just visit him at will.
A few common people, arrest a few of his men, and the evidence of the crime is conclusive."
"Then why do we need to talk about the investigation in a big way? Do we need to investigate strictly and slowly? Do we need to investigate extra carefully? Because all the people who have been in the ninety-nine and the bottom will not leave know it! If you do the investigation quickly, the people will not
Applause! The more slowly you investigate, the more evil this person is, the more satisfied the people will be, you understand!"
Zhao Shi was confused. Compared with Li Jinglong, he was just an innocent and ignorant child.
"So, we don't need to investigate, we are just looking at things!" Li Jinglong pointed at Deng Duo, "There is no need for us to investigate his connections ourselves. Whenever we want to know something, someone will secretly tip him off."
"Then..." Zhao Shi's eyes widened, "Everything is not based on evidence, but on the basis of..."
"We are just investigating, not arresting!" Li Jinglong said sternly, "Besides, it is useless to have so much so-called evidence, one or two is enough! Uncle Guo, you don't understand the things in the officialdom, there is no icing on the cake, it is just adding insult to injury.
It’s a bunch of people. When things go wrong and everyone rebels, why should we bother to check it out?”
"We just need to find out who is the big one, and let them bite the other smaller ones, and we're done!" Li Jinglong continued, "The rest is a headache for the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion and the Ministry of War!"
He said that these were too obscure and difficult for Zhao Shi to understand.
But these days, Zhao Shi has also learned some things from Li Jinglong. The most intuitive one is the change in his impression of things. In the past, he only saw two sides of everything, good and bad.
But now that he has been out for so many days, he has discovered that many things cannot only be considered good or bad, but also have pros and cons, and even pros and cons must be weighed. The final result of weighing is mostly due to human nature.
Human beings have the natural tendency to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages; human beings have the selfish nature; human beings have the characteristics of being like light and dust.
He didn't understand, but he kept these things and words in his heart, savoring them over and over again and slowly digesting them.
"Hey, Uncle Guo, you don't have to be too serious about this!" Li Jinglong seemed to see what Zhao Shi was thinking, and smiled, "Human, there are some things that you can't feel until you are old!" He shook his head and said, "
No, age is just a superficial thing, and some people live their entire lives without understanding it!"
"Humans, it's all about experience. In the future, if you have experienced more and been tricked by others a few times, you will be able to master these things without a teacher!"
"Man!" Li Jinglong patted Zhao Shi on the shoulder, "Experience and vision are the most important things!"
"Excuse me?" Zhao Shi asked.
"Execution!" Li Jinglong said sternly, "Execution is the key. Without execution, it's just empty talk!"
Zhao Shi was thoughtful.
Suddenly, there were footsteps outside.
Li Jinglong's personal soldier Li Xiaowai came in from outside and whispered, "Master, a message has arrived!"
"Whose?" Li Jinglong didn't even raise his head.
"The Qingzhou General Soldier sent someone to deliver a message..." Li Xiaowai said, seeming to be hesitant and biting his lip, "It's for my uncle!"
"Huh?" Li Jinglong suddenly looked sideways.
This chapter has been completed!