Chapter 541 The disaster that comes from heaven must be caused by the county magistrate offending God.

In the evening, Li Chaosheng hurried back to the county government office after finishing the big pot meal, and asked Gu Zi to send someone home to deliver a message to Princess Changyu. He would spend the night at the county government office tonight. There must be countless backlogs in Lantian due to the earthquake.

Government affairs are waiting for you to handle, and you must stick to your post at all times, so that everyone who needs to make their own decisions can find you as soon as possible and find Lantian's backbone.

There is no way that sometimes being the leader is so tiring. No wonder some people say that it is better to be an emperor than a prince. The prince can eat, drink, have fun, and enjoy life to the fullest, but the emperor cannot. If the emperor wants to be good, he must be at work all the time.

, otherwise the empire will definitely decline.

This was true for the Ming Dynasty after Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty after Yongzheng.

But if you let Li Chaosheng choose to be the emperor or the prince, Li Chaosheng will definitely choose to be the emperor without hesitation. There is no other way. Once he has tasted the taste of power, he will not give up.

Li Chaosheng hurriedly entered the office and was blocked in the room by Guo Bao from the Political Department and Yang Shubai, the top ideological coordinator in Lantian.

"Your Majesty, you are back. If you don't come back, we will go to the disaster area to find you."

Guo Bao and Yang Shubai came over and said anxiously to Li Chaosheng. After hearing this, Li Chaosheng looked at the two of them in surprise and said, "What are you so anxious about?"

Guo Bao looked at Yang Shubai at this time, and Yang Shubai said: "You go ahead and say it."

Guo Bao was not polite and cupped his hands and said: "My lord, it's like this. According to the summary of today's intelligence from the Secret Intelligence Service, it was found that although the power of this earthquake did not reach the legendary level of the sky collapsing and the earth collapsing, the scope was extremely wide.

Disasters occurred in Henan, Hubei, Shanxi and other places, and their chief envoys immediately reported the matter to the court. Do you think we should also give Chongzhen a message?"

"A gift to Chongzhen?"

Li Chaosheng frowned slightly when he heard this. He had not done this for many years. Ever since Li Chaosheng married the sister of the King of Qin, even if he completely cut off contact with the royal family, the Ming Dynasty's official newspaper and the internal assessment of the Ministry of Personnel were all

Excluding Lantian means that Lantian or the whole of Shaanxi is no longer the territory of the Ming Dynasty. Every year, except for the tax collectors who are reluctant to pay taxes from Lantian, almost all Ming officials cut off contact with Lantian.

And today, Guo Bao asked Li Chaosheng to give Chongzhen a piece of advice. What was the purpose of this?

Guo Bao saw Li Chaosheng's thoughts and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, Chongzhen is a suspicious, cautious, short-sighted and self-willed person. He has bad intentions towards our Lantian. In recent years, he has been targeted in all aspects and regards Lantian as his confidant."

Enemy, now we say that we have been seriously affected by the disaster, and hand the document to the court. After Chongzhen reads it, he will definitely be overjoyed, and immediately relax his vigilance against us, so that we can let go of our hands and do something big."

"Moreover, Henan, Shanxi, and Hubei have all been discounted. If we don't get involved, I'm afraid it will become a thorn in Chongzhen's side and make his petty mind hate our Lantian even more. I'm afraid he will target our Lantian even more."

Guo Bao watched Li Chaosheng explain the pros and cons that he thought about. Li Chaosheng nodded slightly when he heard the words. What Guo Bao said made some sense. It was just a bargain. He was not a person who wanted face rather than benefits. He didn't want to write a letter to Chongzhen.

There's no such thing as losing your reputation or anything like that.

Li Chaosheng thought about it and looked at Yang Shubai, who was standing aside without saying anything. Li Chaosheng liked to brainstorm and understand other people's ideas from all aspects, so as to find out and fill in the gaps to make his plan more perfect. So Li Chaosheng asked Yang Shubai: "

Lao Yang, what do you think about this matter?"

"Showing weakness to the enemy and weakening their hostility is a very good way. If the county leader does it well, he can give Chongzhen a piece of paper. Lantian has suffered a natural disaster. He is currently too busy to take care of him and has no thoughts.

To create the illusion of other matters.”

"This is really convenient for us to do some things."

Yang Shubai agreed with Guo Bao's plan, and Li Chaosheng nodded slightly and said: "Very good, then I will write a report."

Li Chaosheng asked for pen, ink, paper and inkstone. At this time, Guo Bao polished it for Li Chaosheng and said: "The county magistrate can exaggerate a little. The chief envoys in other places have exaggerated."

After hearing this, Li Chaosheng thought for a while and said, "I understand, Chongzhen and the people in the court want to see Lantian in trouble, let's satisfy them once."

Thinking of Li Chaosheng, he started writing. The opening paragraphs were all clichés. The specific content was that Lantian suffered heavy losses in the Earth Dragon's Turning Disaster, and the entire county's houses collapsed. Li Chaosheng thought about it and thought that the actual number of collapsed buildings should be around 500.

But Li Chaosheng thought for a while and wrote directly: 30,000.

More than 30,000 houses collapsed in the county.

As for the number of people affected by the disaster, more than a hundred were injured and about twenty died. Let’s write more and multiply it a hundred times. Thinking of Li Chaosheng’s writing: More than 10,000 people were injured and more than 2,000 people died.

After writing this, Li Chaosheng raised his head and looked at Guo Baodao: "Isn't it too exaggerated? If multiplied by a hundred times, will people see the flaws at a glance?"

Li Chaosheng was thinking about it, but he saw Guo Bao's face turned dark. At this time, he saw Guo Bao pointing at the disaster report on the paper and saying: "County Lord, I asked you to exaggerate, why did you write such a small number of people?"

Ah, give this to Chongzhen. Chongzhen still doesn't regard us as a serious problem. The entire northwest has been severely affected, but you, Lantian, are fine."

"Is this okay?"

After hearing Guo Bao's words, Li Chaosheng's face turned dark, and he pointed at the number on the paper that he thought was exaggerated. This had already increased the real number of deaths by a hundred times. Isn't this exaggerated enough?

If you dare to report this to the leader in future generations, do you believe that the leader will tear him alive?

Li Chaosheng looked at Guo Baobao and said, "I've exaggerated a hundred times. What else do you want?"

Guo Bao sighed and said: "My lord, you are too honest. Come and see how the Chief Envoy of Henan Province wrote a memorial to the emperor."

Guo Bao took out a telegram from his pocket, which was just sent from Henan today.

Li Chaosheng was not surprised at all that Guo Baoneng knew the content of the memorial written by the Chief Envoy of Henan to the emperor. Now the Secret Service has been deeply deployed. If nothing else, there is now a Secret Service in the imperial palace of the Ming Dynasty.

intelligence personnel, which shows the power of the Lam Tin Secret Service.

In fact, this is normal. You must know that Jixiangji, the largest food company in Lantian, except for the operation of its own stores, all other profits can be attributed to the Secret Service. Jixiangji's annual profit starts at one million taels.

Yes, it has been opened all over the Ming Dynasty. This amount of money is enough for the Secret Service to do a lot of things.

Guo Bao took out the telegram and reported: "Your Majesty, please listen to the memorial of the Chief Envoy of Henan Province. Henan suffered a great earthquake, Mianchi was the worst. The sky collapsed in the city. It was like the end of the world. The sky was covered with dust and no one could see a finger. It rained heavily again and there were thunder and lightning."

As a result, all the houses collapsed, and the damage was probably no less than 300,000, and more than 50,000 people were crushed and killed. It is too horrible to look at, it is too horrible to look at..."

"Three hundred thousand houses collapsed? Fifty thousand people were crushed to death? How many earthquakes were there in Henan?"

Li Chaosheng's eyes widened. Guo Bao heard this and said, "Report to the county magistrate, it's lighter than Lantian."

"Then so many people died? Isn't this unscientific?"

Li Chaosheng was puzzled, and Guo Bao continued: "My lord, the real situation is that more than 3,000 people died in Henan, and a lot of houses collapsed. After all, most of them are yellow mud houses, which are not strong, but there is no such thing as him."

It was such an exaggeration to say that the damage amounted to 300,000 yuan."

After hearing this, Li Chaosheng said: "If three thousand people dare to say fifty thousand, they are more ruthless than me. No, he is exaggerating ten times. I exaggerated a hundred times. Why should I say I am not as good as him?"

Guo Baodao: "Your Majesty, are we playing math games here? The disaster in Lantian is not serious because of your wise leadership, but we cannot report it truthfully, otherwise we, Lantian, will be an outlier among this group of people.

, won’t it attract more hatred?”

Li Chaosheng smiled bitterly and said: "I already feel that I am shameless enough. I didn't expect that these chief ministers are even more shameless than me. Guo Bao, please slow down. I haven't bragged like this in recent years, and my thinking can't keep up."

"

Guo Baodao: "Then the county magistrate, I will read you the disaster reports from other places, and let's look for inspiration."

"Li Shouguang, the governor of Hubei, wrote in a memorial: When an earthquake strikes, the ground cracks and springs spring up, spraying four or five feet upward..."

"Stop, Hubei is shaking out fountains, or breaking water pipes, Li Shouguang really dares to say."

Guo Baodao: "The earthquake hit Xiangyang, and 200,000 houses collapsed. During the period, dead bodies were everywhere with no one to bury them, and the stench was overwhelming. Preliminary estimates indicate that there were no less than 70,000 to 80,000 casualties."

"This is better than Henan."

Li Chaosheng couldn't help complaining, and Guo Bao continued: "This is what the Chief Envoy of Sichuan said. The Hanzhong ground cracked, the black water surged, and there were loaches rolling around. I don't know where they came from. During the earthquake, the rivers dried up, the mountains collapsed, and the villages

An unknown number of people were buried in the mountains. The city walls collapsed and the government offices were reduced to the ground. As many as 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers and civilians were crushed to death, as well as countless cattle, horses and livestock. I am lying in the ruins. I hand you this memorial and ask the imperial court to quickly provide relief."

Guo Bao said to Li Chaosheng: "Your Majesty, look at the chief envoy. In the end, he knew that he was miserable and needed subsidies. Look at what you wrote. Two thousand people died and it's easy to complain."

?”

Li Chaosheng said with a dark face when Guo Bao said: "These bastards tell lies with their eyes open. Aren't they afraid of thunder?"

Guo Baodao: "If God has eyes, I'm afraid there won't be many people alive in the Ming Dynasty officialdom."

"I felt that I was already out of line by writing memorials to Chongzhen like this, but I didn't expect that these people are so shameless."

Guo Baodao: "In the face of interests, these officials are easier to compromise than anyone else. Although Chongzhen has become a skinny donkey, no matter what, he can still scrape two ounces of oil off his body. They say it is miserable.

If you have some, the benefits you will receive in the future will definitely be more."

Li Chaosheng sighed and said: "The imperial court has no money. These chief ministers are very calculating, but they probably won't get much benefit."

"More or less, Chongzhen will definitely give it some, and it shouldn't be too shabby, otherwise he won't be able to explain it to the people of the world."

Guo Bao sighed and said: "This disaster has really made things worse for Ming Dynasty."

Li Chaosheng heard this and said: "What does Chongzhen tell the people of the world? This disaster is a natural disaster, what does it have to do with the emperor?"

Hearing this, Guo Bao smiled and said: "My lord, sometimes you are extremely smart, and sometimes your questions are really naive. What are natural disasters? Natural disasters are the punishments God sends down on the emperor and the ruling class. If it were not for the lack of moral character of the ruling class,

, God will never bring disaster."

"Haha~ It's nonsense. You also went to Lantian College to attend classes. Isn't this earthquake a natural phenomenon caused by the movement of the earth's crust? How could God send a punishment?"

After hearing this, Guo Bao said: "Your Majesty, we understand this truth, but millions of people in the Ming Dynasty do not understand. Since ancient times, whenever a natural disaster occurs, it means that the moral character of those in power is lacking. This is a deep-rooted idea among the people.

Now what you tell them about crustal movement is unrealistic and they won’t believe it. By the way, County Lord, Yang Shubai came to you just for this matter."

As Guo Bao spoke, he brought the topic to Yang Shubai. At this time, Yang Shubai stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty."

Li Chaosheng looked at Yang Shubai and said, "What's going on? With this Lantian earthquake, the people think my moral character is lacking, right?"

Li Chaosheng looked at Yang Shubai and asked. Yang Shubai was silent for a moment and said: "Not yet, but the investigation department has arrested some of the people who caused trouble after the earthquake. These people were sent by the imperial court and some were sent by bandits. They are now

We seized this point and launched a crazily publicity campaign all over Lantian. The earthquake in Lantian was caused by the county's moral deficiencies and offended God. Only God would bring disasters. If the county's officials don't pray for God's forgiveness, there may be more disasters.

If there is a bigger disaster, then all the people in Lantian will be unlucky!"

"Do the people believe it?"
To be continued...