Cui Dahai's expression was full of doubt. He didn't have time to think too much and hurriedly followed his subordinates up the city gate tower. Then, he covered his forehead with his palm and looked at Ang Lee's group that was two li away.
"Aiyo, this lineup is really not small! Just what is their background? "
Cui Dahai looked at the situation in the distance and felt that the other party's status was definitely much higher than his. The accompanying guards were obviously well-equipped and there were even some vehicles that he had never seen before.
"Tsk tsk, this background is not small! I'm afraid they really are from the capital. "
After letting out a sigh, Cui Dahai began to think. He didn't know what to do. Should he take the initiative to greet them or pretend that he didn't see them?
If he took the initiative to greet them, it would be safer to go personally. Moreover, it would be best to go on foot. That would appear more sincere. But should he go empty-handed or bring gifts?
Would he be blamed if he went empty-handed? And if he brought a greeting gift, how much should he give? It was better not to give too little. If he gave too much, his heart would ache. Moreover, the gift also depended on the other party's preferences. A lecherous person would give a young woman, a greedy person would give gold, and a person who liked antiques would give old calligraphy and paintings and all kinds of things that were from the era. In short, it was better to cater to their preferences.
Cui Dahai didn't even know who the other party was, so naturally, he didn't know what the other party's interests and hobbies were. Naturally, he had no clue how to give a gift.
"Uncle, what should we do now? Should we go over and greet them?"
Cui Er asked.
This burly man who looked a little like Guan Yu, although his martial strength was not bad, he was very lacking in brains. He could never make up his mind when it came to major matters and needed Cui Dahai's guidance. In Cui Dahai's opinion, this was a display of loyalty. It was only because he was sufficiently loyal to him that he would do this.
However, at this moment, Cui Dahai had no idea. When he usually dealt with all kinds of big things in the county, he was very opinionated and seemed to be very handy. There was almost nothing that he couldn't do. In terms of receiving state and county leaders for inspection, he did a relatively good job, but at this moment, he seemed to be at a loss.
He was able to deal with the county affairs easily because he was the local tyrant of Dejing County. He could do whatever he wanted and no one could control him. As for the state and county leaders, he was familiar with and understood them. He knew clearly what kind of temper each leader had. Naturally, he knew how to deal with them. Only strange leaders from the capital could make him nervous.
"Cui Er, what do you think this means? Since they were already at the entrance of the county, why didn't they enter the city? It would have been better to send a soldier to inform them! What does that mean? "
Cui Dahai asked doubtfully.
Cui Er shook his head, then guessed, "Uncle, could it be that they're here to look at the ruined city walls and have no intention of coming to the county?"
"Yes! Yes! Otherwise, why didn't they come to the county? They didn't even send anyone here. Maybe they really don't plan to come to the county. Just ignore them. "
Cui Liu also said enthusiastically.
"Did I let you speak? Shut up. "
Cui Dahai scolded angrily. Cui Er also glared at Cui Liu.
It was fine if Cui Liu didn't have any ability, but the key point was that he was particularly courting death. The decision making should be left to the leader, and as a subordinate, he could only provide suggestions. This was an obedient subordinate, a good follower that could satisfy the leader.
Perhaps he was used to being scolded, Cui Liu didn't have any temper at all. He still had a fawning smile on his face, as if he wasn't angry at all. In fact, he would definitely be angry, but he was too incompetent. Therefore, even if he was angry, he had to put on a smile on his face to please others. However, if this guy unexpectedly obtained power one day, he would definitely take revenge on those who had humiliated him before. This was what people called a villain intoxicated by success.
After hesitating for a while, Cui Dahai decided to go and take a look. However, he didn't go directly to meet Ang Lee. Instead, he sent Cui Er to ask Ang Lee's guard to understand the situation first. Then, he would go personally. This was more reliable.
"Cui Er, go and ask the soldiers below. Find out what kind of official this person is and why he came to our Dejing County. Go quickly!"
Cui Dahai requested.
Cui Er nodded and left with his two subordinates.
Two li wasn't a long distance, and it was even faster if they rode a horse. Soon, they arrived at the foot of the abandoned Great Wall. When they were thirty steps away from the soldiers, they dismounted and walked. Then, they handed the horse to two attendants and went alone.
Because they didn't carry any weapons, Ang Lee's guards didn't need to be on guard. Moreover, they could tell that this person was an official from the county. Naturally, he came to understand the situation.
"Generals, I'm the county magistrate of Dejing County. May I ask who the noble on the Great Wall is?"
Cui Er asked tentatively.
Because he didn't dare to be rash, he even omitted his signature gesture of stroking his beard. He would fiddle with his beard from time to time in front of his subordinates and commoners, but he would never do so in front of his superiors. This habitual gesture of his was only done according to the occasion.
There was no need for the guards to hide it. However, they were only here to protect Ang Lee. As for whether they would go to the county, they really didn't know. They didn't even know why Ang Lee wanted to go up the Great Wall.
Cui Er didn't dare to ask too much. As for going up the abandoned Great Wall to ask Ang Lee, he didn't dare. He could only ride back to report the situation immediately.
Seeing the three figures on horseback come and leave, Li An naturally guessed what they were here for. The corners of his mouth curled up slightly, appearing to be very calm.
"My husband just came to take a look at the abandoned Great Wall, but he made the officials of Dejing County very nervous. Look at the many people on the Great Wall, and the three people who just left. One look and I can tell that they are officials of Dejing County."
Li Hanlu said.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "Madam is right. These fellows usually flaunt their power, but they were scared out of their wits when they saw their superiors. What are they afraid of? Can't they just do their jobs well? "
Being afraid of being inspected by their superiors was a common problem for officials in almost all eras. In fact, it wasn't only the officials who were like this. It was the same in all professions. They were afraid of being inspected by their superiors so as to avoid being found out. Moreover, even the most responsible person would have his or her mistakes.
In his previous life, Ang Lee had worked in many units. Almost every time their superiors came for an inspection, the subordinates would do some meaningless and wasteful actions. They would waste a lot of money and resources, but it was all meaningless.
For example, when they were in the textile factory, as long as they heard that their superiors came for an inspection, they would directly dispose of the wasted fabric. These defective fabrics could still be sold, but they would have to be sold at a reduced price. But overall, they could still get some benefits.
However, the subordinates didn't think so. They would think that too many defective fabrics would make their superiors dissatisfied. Although these defective fabrics could be sold for money, at the same time, it could also show that the work was not done well enough. Otherwise, how could there be so many defective fabrics? If they directly disposed of them, the superiors would not find out and would think that they had done a good job. The quality of the woven fabrics was good, and the quality was close to 100%. In fact, if the quality of the woven fabrics was good, it would be good if the quality of the woven fabrics was 99%. The waste of materials was definitely more than 10%. The warp threads that were cut off were not finished, the parts that were cut off because of the flaws in the fabric, the wrong choice of materials, the wrong replacement of mechanical gears, causing the density of the fabric not to meet the customer's requirements, and the parts that were not well managed and stored in the temporary warehouse to rot. These losses added together were definitely not small. As long as their superiors came for an inspection, all these losses would be dealt with quickly. Even the slightly defective fabrics would be thrown away immediately. Thus, they would lose a lot of money, but in return, they would be praised.
The problem of the catering department was even more serious. This was because food was very different from other items. It existed for a very short time and was very easy to rot and spoil. As long as it rotted and spoiled, the food would be wasted. This was definitely a great loss.
The basic catering staff also worked very hard. There would also be times when they were tired. Once the body was very tired, they would not work according to the operating procedures. There would even be a phenomenon of forgetting things. If the food was left on the workbench and not put in the refrigerator, the consequence would be that when they came to work the next day, the food had already spoiled and could not be used. This kind of loss was bound to happen often.
Also, in order to obtain cheap food, they would adopt a large-scale wholesale strategy. If there were too many of the same kind of food in the wholesale, it was inevitable that they would not be able to use it up, and then it would cause a certain degree of waste. However, because the unit price was cheap, even if one-third of the food was spoiled, it was still cost-effective for the catering department. But if the higher-ups came to inspect and saw this situation, they would feel that this was a great waste. The small leaders of this department and the people who purchased the vegetables would be severely criticized, and no matter how they explained, it would be useless.
For the front-line departments, a large number of wholesale ingredients were always the most cost-effective business. Moreover, the customers of the restaurant were not fixed, and the demand for each dish was different every day. If they prepared less, it would cause dissatisfaction among the customers, and if they prepared more, it would cause rot. However, it was obviously too difficult to purchase properly, and no one could do it at all. In order to satisfy the customers and avoid the situation where the dishes ordered by the customers were not available, they could only buy more. This way, the unit price could be cheaper, but rot and waste were inevitable. This was not a big deal in itself, but as long as the higher-ups came to inspect, this was a big deal, and it had to be covered up as soon as possible to avoid being discovered by the higher-ups.
In fact, there were already a lot of broken bricks on the ground, so they could just pick them up and use them. There was no need to cut the whole brick again, but it was very tiring to go down and pick up the broken bricks. The workers were very busy, and it was also very tiring to go down and pick things up. Naturally, they were unwilling to do such a thing, resulting in a great waste. The ground was full of half and small half bricks. For the sake of the progress of the project, the junior leaders naturally did not care about these wastes, but once the higher-ups came, they could not stand it anymore. Therefore, as long as the higher-ups came to inspect, the junior leaders would immediately mobilize the workers to dig a hole and bury a large number of broken bricks to avoid the higher-ups' inspection and avoid being criticized by the higher-ups.
In short, the higher-ups and the juniors were in different positions, and the things they cared about were also different. In fact, the juniors would even do a lot of illegal things and were afraid of being discovered by the higher-ups. Therefore, avoiding inspection and pandering to the higher-ups had always been something that the juniors actively did. Cui Dahai was no exception. The thing he was most afraid of was that the imperial court would send a high-ranking official to investigate him. He was a person with many problems, and no matter which direction they investigated, they would find a lot of problems. Once these problems were discovered, his position as county magistrate would be over. Not only that, he might even be imprisoned, and this was something that he could not bear.
Cui Er quickly returned to the county town's west gate, then jumped off his warhorse and ran to the top of the city gate. He was so tired that he was panting.
Before Cui Er could catch his breath, Cui Dahai asked impatiently, "Er Lang, what's the situation? Which high-ranking official came? "
"Huff … Uncle, it's a high-ranking official, a popular person by His Majesty's side. It's Assistant Minister Li, huff …"
Cui Er panted as he replied.
"Aiyo, such a high-ranking official! What is he here for? "
Cui Dahai was surprised and could not help but ask.
"I'm not sure."
Cui Er shook his head and replied.
"If you're not sure, then what did you do?"
Cui Dahai questioned with dissatisfaction.
Cui Er replied with an aggrieved expression, "Uncle, Assistant Minister Li's guard only said so much. He didn't know anything, so how could I ask?"
Cui Dahai was both nervous and excited. Such a high-ranking official had come, and whether or not he was here to inspect Dejing County, he had to take the initiative to greet him. Otherwise, if he offended such a high-ranking official, he would be in trouble if he came to the county town to pick a fight.
"Liu Lang, go to the city and gather more people. Call out all the nearby commoners and have them line up on the streets to welcome Assistant Minister Li. Go back and tidy up the county yamen and clear out everything that shouldn't be there. Also, hurry back to the manor and tidy up the manor. Take away everything that's against the law. Hurry."
Cui Dahai gave a series of orders, making his subordinates nervous.
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