Chapter 13: Thunder's Fury—The Problem of Corruption Soon, several people had already changed their clothes and left the base through a remote passage, and it was easy to blend into Quanzhou City - the reason why it was so easy was that in addition to being dark, another reason was that Quanzhou City had no city defenses.
In fact, except for some cities whose military positions are really very important, the rest of Lingnan, including Yuezhou, are cities without city walls, which greatly expands the development space of the city.
What's more, if the enemy really hits the front of the city, what's the use of having an extra wall?
It's just a little more delay, what's the difference between dying early and dying late?
"Well, I haven't been here for half a year, but the development of Quanzhou is still very good."
Looking at the sunset, but the city of Quanzhou is not affected by the sky at all, the shops have lit lanterns, beckoning customers hard, the vendors are shouting hard in the planned area, and countless pedestrians are strolling or eating or playing, with the smoke rising from the cooking, forming a perfect picture - I believe that if this scene is seen by some painters or poets, maybe it can also inspire them, and maybe some masterpieces will be born as a result.
"Not necessarily."
It's just that in response to Li Zhen's admiration, Cheng Chuliang didn't agree with it very much, and retorted: "Doesn't Your Highness have a sentence?
Behind the prosperity, there is endless darkness. ” "How so?
Is there any darkness in this city......
What exactly are you trying to say?
Li Zhen pointed to the lanterns on the side of the road, the prosperity of Quanzhou is not much worse than that of Yuezhou, Cheng Chuliang's words are too abrupt.
It's just that Li Zhen also knows that Cheng Chuliang has never been the kind of person who is full of nonsense, and since he said so, Li Zhen will inevitably not have doubts.
Cheng Chuliang did not answer Li Zhen's question, but pointed to the front and said, "Your Highness, if you can still say this after seeing the situation in front, then your subordinates have nothing to say." ” "What do you mean?"
Li Zhen walked forward quickly, and after walking less than 500 meters, he saw a huge construction site, which seemed to be building a road, and the roadside was full of materials.
Although it was already evening, there were still many people on the construction site, hundreds of workers were wielding tools to struggle on the construction site, and there were a few foreman-like people shouting: "Everyone work hard, today's plan is about to be completed, after the completion of the ......
I invite everyone to eat meat."
"Oh~" The workers cheered.
"Strange, this palace remembers that when I came half a year ago, the road in Quanzhou had just been repaired."
Although the construction site was in full swing, Li Zhen felt more and more strange when she saw it, and her brows gradually wrinkled: "Could it be that there is something wrong here?"
Roads ruined?
And when did eating meat become a benefit?
The palace remembers that Lingnan has specially issued a regulation, but all those who are engaged in heavy physical work must have meat for three meals a day......"
If Li Zhen is not mistaken, this road should be called Quanzhou Road, it is the main main road in Quanzhou City, and the other three main roads together divide Quanzhou City into nine areas.
But it's only been half a year?
The road was rebuilt?
What has happened to all of this?
"Where is the disaster?
What calamity can hide from your eyes and ears, Your Highness?
Cheng Chuliang sneered when he heard this: "To be honest, this road was still good a month ago, and his subordinates still walked through this road to transport supplies, and this matter actually only happened a few days ago...... "......"
Li Zhen's face became gloomy, he already understood what was going on—wasn't it the same in the afterlife?
All kinds of buildings are demolished and built, built and demolished, so that the left hand is replaced by the right hand, and the layers that are replaced are all oil and water......
"Okay, it's really good, I really didn't expect this kind of thing to happen again under the command of this palace."
Li Zhen laughed angrily, he did not reject corruption, a country is such a big machine, it is impossible to guarantee that every part is perfect, in fact, in Li Zhen's eyes, a capable corrupt official is easier to accept than an incompetent clean official, not to mention that after so many years of development in Lingnan, even the most remote state capital, a year's tax revenue is almost equivalent to a central state.
In fact, some cities in the mountains are better developed than outside, after all, there are still a lot of treasures in the mountains, and there are just no roads that can't be transported before.
But now that Li Zhen has spread the highway network all over Lingnan, the roads are open, and the good things in the mountains can be sold at a high price outside—every time he goes out of the mountains, he can earn a lot of silver, so that the lives of the people in some state capitals are better than those outside.
If it weren't for the lack of a population base, I'm afraid that all the states in Lingnan Province would have become at least the middle state.
At this time, Lingnan can be said to be full of gold, as the manager of wealth, even if the officials at all levels have no intention of corruption, the annual income of the chief official of a state is at least more than 1,000 taels - even in the poor countryside there are corrupt officials rampant, such a plastered place, corrupt officials are naturally more corrupt.
In fact, every year when the finances are checked, Li Zhen will find that there will always be hundreds of thousands of taels of money missing from the account, which should have been divided by the corrupt officials, not counting their own fishing in their own territory - it's just that the ability of this group of corrupt officials is not bad, and the money they embezzled is far less than the money created by their ability, so Li Zhen didn't care about them.
But corruption can, but it can't be too much, especially things related to people's livelihood are Li Zhen's taboo, but if anyone dares to be sloppy in this kind of thing, Li Zhen will definitely not spare - when building the Lingnan highway network before, some officials colluded with businessmen to shoddy, and even simply mixed impurities such as plant ash into high-quality cement to make huge profits.
After Li Zhen learned about this matter, Li Zhen did not let go of any of the 132 officials and businessmen who committed the crime, and all of them were sentenced to be executed, and the blood at that time was almost half of the street, and the residents of that street did not dare to go out at night for more than three months.
After this incident, the entire Lingnan officialdom was clear, and the officials also understood Li Zhen's bottom line, and even if there were officials who were corrupt, they would never dare to do anything about people's livelihood......
But now it seems that people's greed is really endless, how long has it been?
Anyone would dare to take that risk?
It seems that it is still his own knife, which is not good enough - a killing intent flashed in Li Zhen's eyes, just take this opportunity to give Lingnan another big purge before leaving......
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"Your Highness, please also praise the wrath of thunder, there may be any misunderstanding in this."
Li Jingye looked at Cheng Chuliang, stood up and persuaded: "We still need to investigate this matter in detail, if this matter is true, it is fine, His Royal Highness can't punish it too much, but if you find out that you have wronged a good person in the end, it will not only cause unjust, false and wrongful cases, but Your Highness, your face will also be lost." ” "What do you mean, little brat?"
Cheng Chuliang was stunned: "You mean that I, Cheng, am framing others?"
Let's not say why I want to frame others, let's just say that our Xiaocheng's character is the kind of person who arranges right and wrong behind his back and frames others?
” Li Jingye said slowly: "Hmph, that's not necessarily, I don't know my heart if I know people." ” "You look for a fight, I'll ......"
Cheng Chuliang was furious, and he raised his hand to face each other.
"That's enough."
Li Zhen shouted violently, stopped the two of them, and said: "Cheng Chuliang is naturally believed by the palace, but what Li Jingye said is not wrong, this matter needs to be investigated in detail - in this way, Wei Shuyu, you go and call the Quanzhou Assassin History to the palace." ” "Yes."
Wei Shuyu answered and turned to leave.
But in a quarter of an hour, I saw a bunch of people rushing over in front of me, the leader was about thirty people, with a square face and a high nose, and a dignified appearance, not looking like that kind of corrupt villain - but what Li Jingye said was right, knowing people and knowing faces but not hearts, Li Zhen has been mixed in the Tang Dynasty for so many years, and has already passed the age of seeing faces and knowing people, not to mention that there are still few people in history who are corrupted by gold and jade?
I just don't know if this person in front of me is really a good person or a hypocrite.
"Li Xuan, the assassin of Quanzhou, has seen His Royal Highness the Prince, and His Royal Highness has come to Quanzhou, so I don't know how to say it, and the minister can arrange to greet him."
The dignified person is Li Xuan, who greeted Li Zhen very familiarly, seeing that he was calm and not weak at all, either he had excellent psychological quality, or he really had nothing to do with this matter.
Looking at his posture, most of the doubts in Li Zhen's heart were gone: "My cousin's heart brother has received it, but this time my brother came to Quanzhou just to pass by, and he didn't plan to stay for a long time, so he didn't tell my cousin." ” Li Xuan is indeed Li Zhen's cousin, his father is Li Yuanze, the king of Pengsi, and he himself was also named the king of Nanchang, the assassin of Quanzhou.
It's just that according to the unwritten rules of the imperial court, he should have been led by the assassin from afar, and the real power was actually in the hands of Changshi.
But since Li Zhen took control of Lingnan, this unwritten rule has been completely abolished, and some children of the royal family have followed Li Zhen's example and went to the fief to serve - of course, governing the place is not a trick, and it is not so simple to obtain this qualification, at least through the test of the emperor before it can be recognized.
And this Li Xuan was recognized by Li Shimin, and after coming to Lingnan, he was assessed by Li Zhen, and felt that he was barely qualified for the position of assassin, so he sent him to Quanzhou.
Speaking of which, Li Xuan's arrival in Lingnan is actually less than a year, to be honest, Li Zhen doesn't think he can control the situation in Quanzhou so quickly, not to mention that Li Xuan's personality is honest and honest, his status is noble, and his family is not short of this money, no matter how he thinks about it, Li Zhen feels that his suspicion will not be too great.
"Hehe, Your Royal Highness the Prince, this is your fault, whether you are passing by or staying in, you arrive at my territory, but you don't greet me, isn't this looking down on people?
Okay, okay, I won't say these words, I won't pursue it, I have already booked a banquet in the best restaurant before I came, Your Royal Highness the Prince, you can't help but give me this face.
Li Xuan didn't have the ability to read minds, and he couldn't guess Li Zhen's thoughts at this time, but before he came, he had already roughly understood the situation from his own mouth, although he didn't know the purpose of Li Zhen's coming, but combined with his own knowledge, he could almost understand Li Zhen's purpose for calling him here.
But this matter really has nothing to do with him, he is at most a responsibility for lax supervision, and he also has his own plans, so he simply leads the topic to the topic.
"The banquet is not in a hurry, this palace called your cousin not to let you greet me, let's deal with the matter here first."
Li Zhen saw Li Xuan's careful thoughts, but she didn't care, things have to be solved after all, and it is not a big deal to be able to help Li Xuan by the way on the way to solve things.
Li Xuan patted his chest and promised: "I don't know what His Highness said, if the minister can help, he will not refuse." ” "Hongu's question is very simple, cousin, you can definitely answer it."
Li Zhen pointed to the construction site in front of him: "As far as the palace knows, there should be no problem with this road, right?"
Half a year ago, the main palace walked on this road, but I was very satisfied, but what is the reason why you want to destroy this road and rebuild it?
” "This ......"
Li Xuan showed a wry smile: "If Your Highness asks about other things, the minister can still answer, but this matter is really not clear to the minister - half a month ago, there was a ground movement in Wurong County under the rule of Quanzhou, and the people suffered heavy losses, and the minister has been commanding disaster relief in Wurong for half a month, and he only returned to Quanzhou City yesterday, and he has not had time to understand the recent events in the city." ” "Ground moving?
How did Hongu not know?
Li Zhen's brows furrowed even tighter, why didn't anyone notice herself about such a big thing?
Li Jingye, who was behind him, reminded in a low voice: "Huh......
Your Highness, you forgot, you've been on vacation for the past half month.
Quanzhou ground movement, but we did receive the news, but because the scope is too small, coupled with the timely rescue, the loss is not serious, it is not an urgent matter, so we did not tell you the first time. ” "Forehead......"
Li Zhen was embarrassed, he forgot about this stubble.
"Ahem, let's talk about the road."
Changing the topic casually, Li Zhen asked again: "Since my cousin doesn't know, who is responsible for this matter?"
” Behind Li Xuan, a man who was about the same age as him, but who was a little thinner, stood up: "Li Mengling, the governor of Quanzhou, has seen His Royal Highness the Prince, and the minister is in charge of this matter." ” "Oh?
Tell us about the specific reason?
Li Zhen glanced at him lightly, which made Li Mengling's heart slam, and he hated Cheng Chuliang to death in his heart, if he hadn't reminded Li Zhen, where would Li Zhen have noticed this little thing?
Li Zhen is leaving tomorrow, and when he comes back, the road has already been repaired, and everything is unaware, but now that he is good, he is estimated to be dead......
Thinking about Li Zhen's ruthless methods to deal with corrupt officials before, Li Mengling didn't feel that he had a chance to live.