In a teahouse in Qidong County, the newspaper reader took the day's "Shandong Daily" and read aloud:
"Qidong County Magistrate Wang Siyong has been trying to gain fame for six years by neither collecting land taxes from the gentry nor collecting land taxes from the poor. On the surface, this move won a lot of praise and everyone applauded, but in fact it put the entire Qidong County into trouble."
"Qidong County is almost financially bankrupt. No one has repaired the roads. The official roads are full of potholes like quagmire. Even if there is a little rain, it will be impossible to walk for several days. Vendors who come and go have to transport goods. It takes a day to walk in Qidong County.
Two or three days. Some fragile goods such as ceramics will be damaged a lot on the road, which directly leads to high prices in the county."
Teagoers in the teahouse have always regarded Wang Siyong as a rare good official, but they did not expect that "Shandong Daily" actually started to attack Wang Siyong. And from the very beginning, it went straight to the point and hit Wang Siyong's weak spot.
Wang Siyong has been the county magistrate for six years. Although he has won praise from the gentry and the people for his benevolent governance, it is obvious to all that Qidong County is deteriorating day by day. The abandoned post station, potholed roads, broken towers, and clogged sewers
, are what the common people see every day. Normally, no one talks about these matters because of Wang Siyong’s reputation as an upright official, but the decline of Qidong County has indeed made people’s lives more and more difficult. At this time, "Shandong Daily" pointed out
, which makes people feel deafening.
"Wang Siyong's corpse was a vegetarian, and he was obsessed with fishing for fame. After Qidong County paid taxes, there was basically no money left in the finance, and the county government did not do anything that it should do. The wharf on the Daqing River was dilapidated and unusable, the golden waterway of the Daqing River was completely abandoned, and the cost of commodity transportation soared
The special products of Qidong County cannot be exported, and goods from outside the county have to be transported in by horse-drawn carriages, which further increases prices and makes people's lives difficult."
Prices in Qidong County are indeed relatively high, and they have been getting higher and higher in recent years. In other places, a piece of cotton cloth only costs one or two silver, but in Qidong County this year it has risen to one or two silver. The people did not know why before.
We can only bear it silently. At this time, when people read the newspaper, everyone realized that this was the reason why the waterway was cut off and the land road was difficult to travel.
It turned out that Wang Siyong, who was not greedy and was known as a great upright official, had caused such a big problem. The tea guests looked at each other with surprise in their eyes.
But the next headline is the most shocking.
After all, this is Qidong County, and Wang Siyong is the parent official of this county. The newspaper reader never dared to read today's front page. It was not until he had read all the other news and comments that he reluctantly turned the newspaper back to the first page.
Edition and start reading the headlines.
"Qidong County Magistrate Wang Siyong deceived the world and stole his reputation, killing sixty-two innocent people."
As the newspaper reader read this, his voice became smaller and smaller, becoming inaudible. In the teahouse, a middle-aged businessman who was making patterns was sitting in the front row, but he could no longer hear the newspaper reader's words clearly. The businessman slammed the table angrily and shouted loudly
Shout: "Louder!"
The newspaper reader was so frightened that he trembled and started reading aloud.
"The embankment of the Daqing River has been in disrepair for a long time, and a slight flood will cause a disaster. The people along the river have long known about this, and some local gentry even directly reported to Wang Siyong, speaking frankly about the dilapidation of the embankment."
"But how could Wang Siyong have the money to repair the river embankment because he was famous for fishing but not receiving land tax? After receiving the report, he only re-rammed the soil in a few of the most conspicuous places. But other dangerous parts were ignored, which eventually led to the Chongzhen Fourteenth Anniversary.
The Daqing River burst its banks in 2006. Sixty-two riverside residents died in the belly of the fish.”
"In order to defraud his personal reputation, Wang Siyong disregarded the lives of the people along the river. The ugly behavior underneath his majestic appearance is outrageous."
Upon hearing the news, the tea patrons in the teahouse were a little overwhelmed.
It turns out that the sixty-two lives that drowned when the Daqing River burst its banks last year should be attributed to Wang Siyong. Wang Siyong was an upright official who was not greedy nor greedy, and was well-known throughout Shandong, but he caused such a result.
The businessman sitting in the front row, suffering from the soaring freight costs over the years, slammed the table angrily and shouted: "Hypocrite!"
The tea patrons in the teahouse looked at each other.
But the most devastating thing is the last sentence of the headline:
"Due to lack of funds, the Daqing River embankment has not been repaired so far. As long as there is another flood, the Daqing River embankment may burst again at any time. The lives of tens of thousands of people on both sides of the river bank are in danger."
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For more than ten days in a row, "Shandong Daily" devoted a lot of space to reporting on the incident of Wang Siyong, the magistrate of Qidong County. Wang Siyong killed sixty-two people by the river for his personal reputation, which was shocking. As the newspaper gradually spread,
, Wang Siyong’s reputation as a great upright official gradually went bankrupt, and instead he became a typical example of civil servants seeking fame and reputation regardless of the lives of ordinary people.
The gentry no longer feel as proud as before when they mention Wang Siyong, who took the lead in opposing the court. Wang Siyong's appeal in Shandong has disappeared after more than ten days of attacks by "Shandong Daily".
The "Shandong Daily" even organized reporters to conduct several on-site inspections of the dilapidated Daqing River embankment, and published the results of the inspections in the newspaper, which caused an uproar throughout Shandong Province.
On August 23, Wang Siyong came back from outside the county seat in a sedan chair, looking frowning in the sedan chair.
In the past ten days, "Shandong Daily" has been nakedly attacking Wang Siyong. The reputation he accumulated over the past few decades has collapsed overnight.
He was caught by Li Zhi, but he didn't expect Li Zhi to be so powerful. He just put the responsibility for the Daqing River bursting on his head.
If you stand up to challenge Li Zhi, what will happen to you in the end?
Wang Siyong was thinking in the sedan chair, but the sedan suddenly stopped on the road. There was a noise in front of him.
"Master Qingtian, we can't watch the Daqing River burst its banks again!"
"Parents, please allocate funds to build the Daqing River embankment!"
"Master Qingtian, the embankment of Daqing River cannot be repaired anymore!"
When Wang Siyong heard the noisy shouting, his heart trembled. He opened the window of the sedan chair and looked forward. Sure enough, he saw hundreds of people kneeling in front of the county government office. The people were obviously overwhelmed.
The facts reported by "Shandong Daily" were frightening. Not wanting to be drowned by the flood, they stopped the sedan chair and asked Wang Siyong to repair the embankment.
Where does Wang Siyong have the money to build river embankments? The key to his good reputation accumulated over decades as an official is to exempt the gentry and poor people from land taxes. Qidong County's financial balance is in a mess. He can provide monthly money to the government officials to maintain order in the county.
, which is already considered a careful calculation.
In the past, people thought that the bursting of the embankment was a natural and man-made disaster. Even the few people who knew the inside story would not tell it everywhere. Wang Siyong fooled it. Now that "Shandong Daily" has reported it like this, how will this matter end?
Wang Siyong looked at the people who were kneeling and kowtow, and knew that this matter would never get better. He waved his hand and said to the bearers: "Rush over."
Seeing that the county magistrate ignored the people who asked for orders and rushed through the crowd, the people kneeling at the gate of the county government office were a little angry.
How many more people will have to drown before the embankments of the Daqing River can be rebuilt?
A tall man suddenly stood up and shouted loudly: "You slanderous dog official, you drowned my parents last year, and you haven't built the embankment this year, I will fight with you!"
