When Zhou Zhen, who was still in the dark, was excitedly summoned to the hall and wanted to be the matchmaker between the county magistrate and Tian's family, he was shocked to find that there was no happy dinner party here, only the head of the Tian family who was pushed to the ground.
While he was stunned, he was also tied up by Cao Shen's men and escorted to Hei Fu.
Now everything became clear. Zhou Zhen, an old soldier from the past, felt angry at being deceived. He raised his head stubbornly and repeated the words: "I don't accept it!"
Heifu sat behind the desk and said: "You have been corrupt and accepted bribes, and violated the law. The evidence is conclusive, and you even admitted it. The law says that if you take a bribe of one gold, you will be dismissed from your post; if you are in charge of guarding and stealing, if you are worth ten gold, you will abandon the market. This is
Why do you object to the official arresting you?"
Zhou Jin said, "Young Master, you are talking about laws and regulations. On that day, you told me that the official word was double, and accepting bribes was also a way to change it. It sounds like the Sheriff also knows his way! I also heard that
I don’t believe that the Sheriff is already rich at a young age. Have you never been greedy? We are both money-loving people. If the Sheriff wants to punish me, why don’t you kill yourself first?”
"Bold!" Cao Shen on the side was furious and wanted to have the guy's tongue cut out to prevent him from biting people.
But Hei Fu stopped Cao Shen, stopped the pen in his hand, walked to Zhou Zhen's side, and said with a smile: "You are right, I am young and have a rich family. I feel ashamed to say it, but I really got rid of the law.
I opened a business in my mother's name and asked my relatives to run it on my behalf. In the past few years, everyone from Your Majesty to the common people has known that the so-called Tang family is the Wei family. Due to my status and reputation, the city was shut down.
He didn't dare to make things difficult, and the petty officials didn't dare to offend, so they let him go all the way, and brown sugar became popular in the world, which also meant to use his power to bully others."
After saying this, Mr. Hei became serious: "But I dare to say that every business our family earns is from a willingness to buy and a willingness to sell. The profits accumulated little by little are neither greedy for the people's wealth nor self-stealing. Moreover,
While I was setting up my family, I did not forget about the government, Nanjun, and the sugar mills in Yuzhang, which provided livelihoods for many local people and increased tax revenue for the local government, which was beneficial and harmful to the world. My career in the past ten years has been
, Live up to the ruler above, and do not bully the people below! Walk upright and sit upright!"
"There is a saying about the way of being an official. Integrity and non-corruption are the good things about an official. When you are in an official position, you are good at taking things. If you are a lowly scholar and value the goods, you settle down in your family and forget about the officialdom, this is the mistake of an official. I have the goodness of an official, but you have the mistakes of an official.
, of course you are qualified to bring you to justice with the law and eliminate the great harm to Jiaodong!"
Zhou Zhen was speechless, and finally he could only lower his head and whispered: "I have nothing to say, but the county governor, as you told me that day, is far away from Guanzhong and still wants to govern the place according to the laws. It is absolutely impossible!
"
"It's true that I accepted money and goods from Mr. Tian and his son, but even if I didn't take it, would the salt farm run by the government be profitable? It would still be abandoned due to the intrusion of pirates. I neither have the manpower to destroy the private salt, nor can I help those who ride on the boat.
, Qi people and fishermen and bandits come and go like the wind. Even if we don’t cooperate with the Tian family, the officials I send to the countryside will not even be able to measure the size of the acres, and they will not be able to collect the rent and taxes!"
"Even if I am as honest and honest as the governor said, and live up to the emperor, what will happen? Will the people below, those Qi people, regard me as a parent official? As long as the court's taxes and taxes are not reduced for one day, the official tax will not be reduced.
If the corvee is not relaxed, they will always regard the Qin officials as rats, and they will try to expel us day and night!"
Zhou Zhen felt extremely aggrieved, and the county government was pressing hard. If he did not pay enough, he would be reprimanded and lose his official position.
After much deliberation and sticking to the principle, the result will be a fight that will not please both ends. It is better to cooperate with the local powerful families and rely on them to rule the counties. At least it can cope with the above plan. As for the next step, as long as there is no rebellion, we can wait for any
When he arrives, he just slaps his ass and leaves, leaving it to the next county magistrate to worry about!
This is the "way of being an official" that countless Qin officials learned after they parachuted to Guandong!
A thousand-mile embankment was destroyed in an ant nest. Once the compromise started, it could not be stopped. Therefore, what Hei Fu faced was not one or two giant rats, but the Qin Fa and Qin officials that had been ruined and degenerated due to the incompatibility of the climate and the soil.
"When oranges grow in Huainan, they become oranges; when they grow in northern Huaibei, they become oranges. The leaves are similar, but the taste is different. So why? The water and soil are different..."
Heifu couldn't help but think of this passage in "Yan Zi's Envoy to Chu". How to solve it was really a big problem.
Zhou Zhen also understood that no matter what he said, he would be dead, so he raised his head and said:
"Don't forget, Sheriff, I'm not the only one in Xiami and Jiaodong who is greedy for ink. Can the Sheriff catch them all?"
Heifu said with a straight face: "Anyone who accepts bribes from the Yeyitian family will naturally be severely punished."
Along the way, he also understood that the officials in Yeyi and Xiami had been completely corroded in the past five years. They were like a tree with rotten roots. It was useless to just remove the branches and leaves that were infested with insects. They had to be pulled out.
!
But Zhou Zhen laughed: "The county governor also said, if you wipe out all the officials in Jiaodong, who will you use to govern the people? What will you do with the half-built palaces, roads, and gold mines? When His Majesty comes to inspect the east,
, what I saw was just a mess! If the county governor fails to please me, he will be blamed for it!"
But Heifu laughed and said: "You are officials, anyway, you are deceived by the local officials at the lower level. Government orders do not reach the place. With you and without you, there is no difference. As for His Majesty's eastward tour..."
"Anyone who welcomes His Majesty must hold a broom. If we don't clean the house in Jiaodong inside and outside, and kill you and others like a group of silverfish, how can we let you continue to harm the place and corrode government property, covering it with just a layer of cloth?
Are you pretending that Jiaodong is bright and clean to deceive His Majesty?"
Heifu thought clearly, instead of being timid and throwing weapons at rats, it would be better to drive away the rats at the risk of breaking the objects.
After saying that, he waved his hand impatiently and asked Cao Shen to take this person away and interrogate him. He must get to the bottom of it and complete a major case, an ironclad case! The officialdom of the lower secretaries will be wiped out, so that he can install someone he can trust.
People, firmly control this treasure house that produces canal salt...
"As I said before, clean the house before treating guests!"
…
Later, Heifu had Tian brought up and announced his charges: bribing the government, colluding with the rebel party, attracting pirates, invading the salt field, looting government property, boiling and selling salt in private, and collaborating with Chunyu Qingxia to assassinate
Sheriff!
In short, even if they commit crimes such as bribery, banditry, rebellion, and rebellion, a Yi tribe cannot escape.
As if Tian had heard a big joke, he shook his head and laughed:
"Group of thieves? Riots? The county governor is really good at joking. This Yeyi is the fiefdom my family got for restoring the country. It has been run by three generations for more than fifty years. It is equivalent to a house bearing my family's name.
"
"The tens of thousands of people under the roof are also the subjects of my family. I will keep in mind the words of my great father, respect and love them, and work lightly with taxes, so that they can multiply and live, and make Yeyi prosperous, no less than Jimo. Then I went down to the Mi Salt Field.
, is also an industry that the King of Qi allowed my family to operate, just like the Jun family’s sugarcane field brown sugar.”
"But now, when the Qin officials come here, they can't help but take my house as their own, seize my salt field and turn it into an official camp, and even impose heavy taxes and corvee on the people! Dare I ask the county governor, are you waiting for the Qin officials?
Who is the real thief between you and me, Mr. Tian! I have been planning so hard for the past five years, but it is just to take back the property that belongs to my family bit by bit! You want to use Qin law to convict me? Bah! I have always been a Qi man, but
He knows the rules of Guanzi, but he doesn’t know the bullshit laws of Qin!"
Tian Yi accidentally told the truth. Hei Fu shook his head with regret:
"You see clearly, yes, entering someone's garden, stealing their peaches and plums, seizing someone's dogs, hogs, chickens, and pigs, entering someone's stables, taking someone's horses and cattle, seizing someone's house, and taking someone's wife, daughter, and property are all thieves. But
But he is just a thief."
"To steal someone's country, conquer someone's territory, and seize someone's country, this is a great thief!"
"The ancients said that those who steal hooks will be punished, and those who steal the country will be martyrs. Zhuangzi's words are referring to your Tian family's stealing of Jiang Qi and making them princes, right? This statement is a true insight. No matter what Tian family did, stealing the country is for
The king has the power in his hand, so no one can bring him to justice."
"But things have turned. Now, it is Qin's turn to seize Qi. The descendants of the former princes have also become subjugated, and the power is in the hands of Qin officials."
"Since you have lost your privileges, even if you want to restore the country, even stealing hooks has become a crime. You, the little thieves, will naturally be punished by the big thieves like us."
Tian Li asked confidently, but Hei Fu ignored him. He laughed dumbly and said: "The county magistrate is really a tyrant, and he is not ashamed to admit that he is a thief."
"Thieves also have their ways."
Heifu never thought that he was a righteous partner. He stood in front of Tian, looked into his desperate eyes and said: "The winner is the king and the loser is the bandit. You can't blame anyone, but Tian, do you know that the person who killed your whole family in the end was not
These are not bribes. I am not a person who is inflexible. If you actively contact me at the beginning, there is no possibility of cooperation. "
He captured Yuzhang and became brothers with Wu Rui, the local snake. In governing the northern region, he also fought fiercely with the Rong people, Wushi, and Liangjiazi factions, trying to find ways to make the wool cake bigger and make everyone rich together.
Only against the Yeyitian family, he did not hesitate to deal a cruel blow!
"Because of a single thought, you made a big mistake."
Heifu approached Tian and said coldly: "When you had murderous intentions towards me and sent someone to stab me on the Weishui River, the fate of your family was doomed! At this moment, the soldiers of Huang County should
We have surrounded Yeyi, but it is a pity that Lord Anping, a great generation of heroes, will leave all his descendants alone!"
Tian was furious, with a fierce look on his face: "Hei Fu, do you really think that Huang County's soldiers are reliable?"
Cao Shen was shocked when he heard this, but Hei Fu looked back calmly, as if he had expected all this:
"Yes, Huang County is adjacent to Yeyi, but the Jiaodong County Lieutenant is indifferent to what you and Zhou Zhen are doing, and the troubles from pirates are getting worse every year. Thinking about it this way, he is probably unreliable, but
Instead of becoming an enemy of the imperial court for the sake of your family, I will take the lead and try to kill your family before I arrive to avoid being implicated."
"But I don't dare to put my own safety on the county soldiers, so this time, I also invited foreign aid..."
While he was talking, Gong Ao, who had disappeared for almost ten days, strode into the hall, bowed to Mr. Hei and said:
"Guardian, Gong Ao is fortunate to have lived up to his command. The two thousand soldiers and horses invited from Linzi have reached Pingdu!"
