A gust of wind blew and Xiaobei shivered. He looked at the mud wall in front of him through the gaps in the crowd and said, "Let's go in first. It's windy outside. Last night, the tent was so noisy. I didn't sleep well."
"The girl must have been tired," said the old man who had walked over with a pained expression.
"It's not me, it's the rest of the team. Go in and arrange a place for them to sleep. Let's go." Xiaobei led the way.
With Gongsun Moyu by his side, Wang Chang's position as county magistrate could not be reflected. He could only follow a few steps behind, afraid and aggrieved.
Hearing Xiaobei's words, he turned his head and muttered, "Didn't they say that the Zhang Family and Wang Family's servants and guards are the best in the Great Tang? Won't the wind tire them out?"
"What are you talking about? I hate it when people talk behind my back. So what if they're elites? Elites are still people. Normally, they don't need to be so fatigue-resistant. Or are you trying to tell us that in Wenshan County, our people need to maintain the same vigilance? Are you worried about yourself or the people in the county? "
Xiaobei turned around and asked Wang Chang.
Before Wang Chang could explain, the surrounding locals glared at him angrily. It looked like they wanted to tear him apart.
An older woman with wrinkles on her face held a wooden staff and knocked it on the ground twice. She looked at Wang Chang and said hatefully, "Useless thing, you can't be a county magistrate. You don't know how to speak. The bad guys don't know that Xiaobei and the others are rushing over. Who in the county can harm them? If someone dares to do something bad, we'll find them even if we have to dig three feet into the ground, just like Xunyang."
Hearing the old woman's words, it was clear what she was talking about. A group of young people had almost been blown up by a gunpowder boat in Xunyang by the Yangtze River.
Looking at the situation, the speed at which this news spread was extremely fast. Even the remote mountains knew about it.
Wang Chang opened his mouth but did not say a word. Afraid of being attacked, he lowered his head and continued to feel wronged.
Xiao Bei sighed, shook his head, and walked forward. He knew that Wang Chang was depressed. Not all local officials were as capable as Gongsun Moyu. Their abilities were limited, and most of them were just maintaining the status quo. This was especially true for people in remote areas. If they couldn't come up with a short-term plan to get rich, others would reject them.
As long as he could let the locals continue to live without rebelling, he would be a good official for the imperial court. As for making the local people rich, that was something that only capable officials could do.
Logically speaking, Wang Chang, the county magistrate, was not in the wrong. Unless he was found to be corrupt, accepting bribes, abusing his power for personal gain, or bullying the people, even if he used the money in the wrong place or did something wrong out of kindness, he could not be punished. Of course, if he really did break the other rules, even if he was greedy for a hundred copper coins, it would still be a heavy crime.
Thinking about this, Xiao Bei looked at Gongsun Moyu who was following him. He thought that since the lives of the local people were better, and the county's revenue had increased a few times, it would not be a problem for him to covet a few hundred strings of coins. There was no such thing as fairness and impartiality in this world.
"Uncle, can I ask you something?" Xiao Bei suddenly asked the old man beside him.
"Don't mention one, I will answer as many as you ask. I will tell you everything I know." The old man said happily.
Wang Chang suddenly said, "Yes, I will tell you everything I know."
"Shut up, do you know? Do you know how to make us live a good life? " The old man reprimanded. If it was before Xiao Bei and the others came, he would not dare to talk about the county magistrate. But now, he was not afraid. He probably would not be the county magistrate for long. Even if he continued to be the county magistrate, he was not afraid. If the provincial governor made a mistake, he would still dare to scold him in front of Xiao Bei and the others.
Do you still have the guts to take revenge? Try it. If you take revenge today, someone will raid your house tomorrow. Taking revenge because of what Xiao Bei and the others did was to prevent the people from speaking to the emperor. If the path of speaking was not smooth, the fate of the nation would not be smooth. What kind of crime did you commit?
Wang Chang seemed to have thought of this as well, so he did not even dare to look at the old man angrily.
"Uncle, don't worry about him. Let me ask you. Do you like an official who is not greedy and is dedicated to the people but cannot make your lives better, or do you like an official who is very smart and can make your lives dozens of times better with just a little bit of effort, but will also steal some of the money?"
Xiao Bei asked. Since ancient times, this topic had its own right and wrong.
The old man was stunned by the question. When the group entered the range of the earth wall, he smacked his lips and said, "In my opinion, it depends on the place. For example, in Wenshan, we can't eat meat twice a year. When we finally hunt something in the mountains, we have to make it into dried meat and take it outside to exchange for oil and salt.
When there is a shortage of food, wild vegetables are good things. When you are hungry, grass roots and tree bark are also good. If the county magistrate wants to be greedy and live a good life, we can't wait to eat his meat and drink his blood. If it is that brat Gongsun, after one or two years, he can be greedy if he wants to. It is not easy for him. He can't be rich while we suffer. People's hearts are made of flesh. We also want him to live a good life. If the higher-ups really come to investigate, I don't know about others. I will help to speak up and stop it if I can.
Your Sanshui County is definitely different. Everyone is rich and usually does not lack things. You are just an official to help maintain the status quo. What right do you have to be greedy? When you take the money that should be used in the county, what will other people use? The people of your Sanshui County are not greedy, right? "
"Dare? Lend them a hundred guts and I will let them live to earn but not to spend. Hehe, in fact, there are no officials in my county who are greedy. The money that is earned is not as good as the money that is earned after doing a good job. The eyes of the common people are bright. Uncle, do you think Wang Chang, the county magistrate, is greedy? "
Xiaobei seemed to have understood a problem and led the topic to Wang Chang.
Wang Chang instantly felt that winter had come, and it came when he was standing on the top of Min Mountain. If he really said that he was greedy, his crime would be increased by five levels and he would be beheaded.
"I am not greedy." Thinking of his head, Wang Chang shouted at the top of his voice.
Xiaobei said lightly, "Reason does not depend on the loudness of your voice."
"I am really not greedy. Look, all of you, look at my clothes." Wang Chang continued to shout. As he spoke, he lifted his outer official robe, revealing the inner lining. The material of the inner lining was not bad. The men came over and touched it. They looked at each other and nodded. The man said,
"The second-class brocade of Sichuan has fine stitches and smooth silk. The only shortcoming is that the embroidery is not good. The first-class top grade is much better, such as … such as Xiaoxian's inner lining. Xiaoxian, come here and let everyone have a look."
The man thought that he and others were not wearing Sichuan brocade but fine cotton, so he had to call the maid over and lift the outer coat to reveal the inner lining. He said to the people around, "This is first-class top grade Sichuan brocade. County Magistrate Wang's clothes are worth five coins. But it seems that he has been wearing it for many years. There are patches on it and the silk on his stomach is almost broken."
"Thank you, thank you, good people." Wang Chang, who was relieved, said gratefully. At the same time, he looked at the maid Xiaoxian enviously. "Even a maid is better dressed than me. Why don't you unruly people say that a maid is not well-dressed?"
Of course, the unruly people did not care how well-dressed the maids of the Zhang Family and the Wang Family were. The inner courtyards of the Zhang Family and the Wang Family were legendary. It was said that any one of them could be a good local official. Half of the officials in the Tang Empire suddenly died, so it was not a problem to replace the inner courtyards of the two families.
What the unruly people cared about was whether County Magistrate Wang Chang was pretending or not. So they all came forward and touched County Magistrate Wang's clothes, leaving various handprints on them.
Wang Chang's heart twitched when he was touched. He gritted his teeth and endured it. It was just a piece of clothing. It was better than losing his life.
"The patches are not new." Finally, someone made a conclusion.
"No." Someone echoed.
"It has been worn for many years."
"The silk here has been ruined."
County Magistrate Wang, who was about to collapse, suddenly felt that most of the people in the county were good people. The old lady who spoke first, although wrinkled now, was definitely a beauty in her twenties. There was also a little boy who left black handprints and said that the silk was ruined. When he grew up, he was guaranteed to be a pillar of the country. He could easily become the top scorer in the imperial examinations.
Xiaobei and the nine little guys were also puzzled. They gathered their heads together and muttered for a while. Xiaobei turned back and asked, "Wang Chang, did you deliberately wear a tattered piece of clothing to deal with us? I'll say this. If you really did something wrong, just say it directly. As long as you didn't kill someone or break up your family, we won't pursue it further.
However, if you dare to lie to us, you can expect that our Zhang Family and the Wang Family are not good at investigating. Once we find out, the dozens of people standing on the Vermilion Bird Street in the capital's Chang 'an City will have one more partner. The family of the Hongnong County Magistrate, Yan Zheng, is still alive. "
Xiaobei began to scare Wang Chang. Yan Zheng's family did not die because of the little girl. They were sent back from Japan and arranged to be somewhere else. However, outsiders did not know and thought that the whole family had been executed.
The reason why Yan Zheng was so tenacious was because he knew that his family was still alive. During the New Year, the little girl even came to visit him once. She sat in the car and lifted the curtains to look. This also allowed him to see the son that his pregnant wife had shown him when he was caught.
Then, he needed to cooperate and shout to every passing official that if he did not die in 20 years, he could reunite with his family. Although he knew that he might not be able to hold on for 20 years, he was still willing to do it. It was enough to see his family once a year.
Most of the others were caught in the previous fraud and religious incident. Only a few of them were officials from other places. To them, death was a kind of benevolence. They had to live so that the other officials could see how their bodies were gradually rotting away. They could see medical apprentices operating on their bodies and cutting off their rotten flesh to treat them. They could see their various reactions when they were about to be pierced with a new needle.
Wang Chang had seen it before. During the New Year, he had returned to the capital with the other local officials to discuss how to support Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan in their Western Expedition this year. The capital was even colder than Wenshan. One of the officials who had been caught had one of his legs frozen. Then, he was arranged to see the medical students explain how to deal with it on the spot.
At the time, the official's leg was already black. On it were bulging and broken frostbites. Then, he was splashed with boiling water to record his skin reaction when he was suddenly exposed to heat after frostbites. In the end, his leg was sawed off and he was injected with a few injections of a newly developed drug. Before returning to Wenshan, he saw that person again and found that he was still alive. This showed that the medicine was good and that the medical students had superb medical skills.
But no matter what, he did not want to personally experience the medical students' superb medical skills on the Vermilion Bird Street.
When he thought of this, Wang Chang swallowed his saliva and said, "The clothes are definitely not for show. I don't usually do bad things."
"Then why are you white and plump, while Gongsun Moyu is dark and thin?" Xiaobei inquired about his skin color and figure.
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