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Chapter 260 Autumn Fu Twenty-Five
Although the government officials are usually arrogant and dominate the people, in fact they completely rely on the power of the system. Once you encounter "hard goods" that the system cannot control, you will only suffer. Naturally, the Australians didn't buy into the Ming Dynasty's system, and all the government officials were very understanding. Wu De was originally prepared that they might have riots, but he didn't expect that after seeing the shining spears and swords around them, he said Without any nonsense, they all lined up and left the city obediently. Even the ropes prepared to tie people up were not used.
The team leaders and key personnel among them enjoyed special treatment and were directly tied up and stuffed into the loading oxcart and pulled out. They will enjoy individual rooms in the study group.
The place where the government officials go is the "study class". Of course, this study class is not for "learning", but is mainly used for screening and interrogation. Before finally dealing with these people, Wu De planned to get as much information as possible from their mouths.
As for the six-bedroom units, the single-unit housing units have been fully accepted by a special group of the Planning Commission. Because the household house was involved in the county's financial problems, except for the arrested Chen Minggang and a group of his "food men", the others were temporarily retained to be cleared up slowly. The announcement of Zhou Qi's appointment as House Secretary has not yet come down, but he has officially taken over this place - of course, under the bayonet escort of the Crossing Group.
Wu De also didn't trust Zhou Qi. In his opinion, none of these people who came out of the old system could be reused. Zhou Qi is just a temporary transitional figure. He has another set of plans on how to deal with household houses and how to carry out future grain collection and taxation work.
All personnel in the execution room are temporarily retained, but the secretary Zhang Shi has been arrested. His arrest was mainly related to Chen Minggang. Since he is Chen Minggang's brother-in-law, he can no longer stay in such a position. It is better to catch the wrong one than to let it go.
The clerks of the other offices were required to deal with daily official affairs, so after they were called into the county government office, Xiong Buyou announced that they should continue to work in the government office and "do their best to serve the emperor and the court." But you are not allowed to leave the Yamen. The retained personnel in each room will also be treated in the same way.
"Although the staff in the official office will not move, you must immediately send someone to take over and do not allow them to move the archive materials inside." Wu De instructed Zhou Botao.
The Lifang controls the county's Lijia, Baozheng, township officials and other personnel systems, as well as the Yamen's official and subordinate files, etc., all of which are managed by the Lifang. All appointments, removals, promotions, transfers, and salary additions must go through its hands. It is equivalent to the county personnel bureau plus organization department in modern time and space. Great authority.
The Chuanchuan Group must clearly understand the "local cadre" system of Lingao County in the Ming Dynasty. The archives of this department are very important. Special personnel are assigned to control the racks and archives in the county that specialize in collecting and storing archive materials.
Another important place is the county's warehouse. One of the people arrested that night was the clerk in charge of the warehouse. After this person was caught, he was immediately imprisoned in the county government office to await disposal. The Planning Commission has little confidence in how much rice can be collected from the county warehouse in Lingao County. However, there is always a little bit. And the property of this treasurer's family will not be much less.
As for other minor officials in the county government, including jailers, prison guards, executioners, warehouse levelers, and skewers, they are all professionals. Although there are shortcomings in almost every link, cleaning them up is not a top priority. Just keep it for now.
That night, the Lingao County government office was brightly lit and busy all night. Every household in the county was closed and did not dare to come out to visit, and the whole county fell into an atmosphere of tension and uneasiness. Xiong Buyou was in charge of everything in the county government office and was very busy.
Wu Mingjin and Wang Zhaomin had no idea what happened in Qianya. After the interrogation in the flower hall ended at noon, Wu Ya came in and reported the entire incident. This result made him quite satisfied.
"It seems that Australians also know the details of local governance, and appeasing the gentry is the top priority." Wang Zhaomin commented.
But Wu Mingjin frowned: "It is a good thing to appease the Jin gentry, but I just reprimanded Chen Minggang and dismissed the grain clerk. What should I do if I receive half of the Autumn Fu?"
"Don't worry about this." Wang Zhaomin was very confident. "Since they dare to arrest Chen Minggang, they naturally have countermeasures."
Wang Zhaomin volunteered and said he was willing to contact the Australians and ask them to come up with practical strategies on how to pay the autumn tax, and then return the favor.
"Just don't cause any more trouble this time." Wu Mingjin sighed, feeling that his role as an official was a bit shocking. The good mood he had cultivated for more than half a year by sitting back and enjoying the fruits of his career was now gone.
In the afternoon, he was even more panic-stricken - the servant suddenly came to report, and the county government offices were blocked before and after. Even the passage to the front office was guarded and no one was allowed in or out.
"Looking at the clothes, he is a brother from Zaoban, but I don't know the younger one," the servant reported.
"There is such a thing." Wu Mingjin was shocked. what is this for
"Please come over, Mr. Wang"
The servant went out and came back a moment later, saying that the access to Mr. Wang's yard was also controlled and no one was allowed to enter or exit now.
Wu Mingjin's mood, which had always been ups and downs, once again fell into despair - his dream of peacefully coexisting with the thieves until he left office was completely shattered. It seems that they are really going to rebel this time. I just don’t know if I should accept a fake job. Wu Mingjin was frightened by this terrible thought that had been haunting him since morning. Although he was prepared to die rather than surrender, it was still difficult for people to face their fears when death was really imminent.
That night, everyone in the county government spent a sleepless night. Wu Mingjin didn't close his eyes all night, listening to the sound of the front office with fear. However, other than the sound of more footsteps, there was no killing or looting incident as he expected. As soon as the east was white, Wu Mingjin got up in the detention room - in order to avoid family inquiries, he did not go back to the inner house at all - he washed up hastily, and the servant brought breakfast. Question: Master Wang is already here. Do you want to invite him in?
"Of course, please come in right away." Wu Mingjin almost didn't want to eat breakfast, thinking that Master Wang probably hadn't eaten either, "ask the kitchen to bring another one."
Wang Zhaomin said that he had already eaten it. Judging from his appearance, he didn't look frightened at all, but rather proud. Wu Mingjin couldn't help but become suspicious. Could it be that Mr. Wang did something for the thief yesterday? The thief is always generous.
Master Wang didn't know that his boss was suspicious of him, so he quickly told him the important news he heard in the morning.
"All the Australians have agreed to the autumn harvest." Master Wang knew that his employer was most concerned about this matter. "If the autumn grain harvest in the county is temporarily insufficient, they will pay for it in advance."
"Advance payment" Wu Mingjin was surprised. Even with the amount of rice consumed on the forehead, the brown rice alone would cost at least 12,000 to 3,000 shi. This is Lingao, not Nanzhili. Not only is the population sparse, but the field output is even pitiful. Even if the Kun thieves have their own secret method of growing rice, they still have over ten thousand people under their command, and these people still need rice to eat.
"Yes," Wang Zhaomin was obviously very confident about the ability to travel through the group. "Master Xiong and a master from Delong Grain Store will come to see Dong Weng soon to talk about Qiu Fu."
"How much interest do they want?" Wu Mingjin knew that there was no free pie in the sky. Advance taxes were also available in other places. For example, when some counties collected summer taxes, the court designated wheat to be collected, but local wheat was not harvested until autumn. Then the county usually borrows grain from the large households in the county to cope with the problem, and then repays it after the autumn harvest, of which there is naturally a sum of interest.
"No interest." Wang Zhaomin said with a proud look on his face, "Master Xiong said that because of Chen Minggang's incident, the autumn tax collection needs to be sorted out again. In order not to miss the deadline for paying the grain, they will advance it first. The amount and consumption of rice are also handled by them. Even the transportation and warehouse delivery are handled by them."
There is a huge miscellaneous fee for shipping and warehouse delivery, which is cumbersome and subject to blackmail and blackmail from the shipping owners. It takes a lot of effort every year, giving Wu Mingjin quite a headache. If Australians are willing to host it, wouldn't it be a great thing? No wonder Wang Zhaomin looked proud.
Wu Mingjin suddenly remembered: "The front office was very noisy last night, and the front and back were isolated. What happened?"
"Something big happened." Wang Zhaomin was invited by Xiong Buyou early this morning, and Xiong Buyou told him about the matter in general.
"What?" Wu Mingjin said, "This is unreasonable. Who will win the world in Lingao County?"
Overnight, many government servants were captured, and Chen Minggang was dismissed. They actually arrested the leader of the third shift and the secretary of the execution room. This is simply a rebellion.
It's not that these people are very loyal and useful to me - on the contrary, none of these people are good people, but the Australians took them all away without even saying hello to me. This is too contemptuous of the government.
"Dong Weng" Wang Zhaomin said, "It seems that this Australian wants to get involved in the county government affairs."
"Humph, this is blackmailing the emperor to make people." Wu Mingjin shut up at this point. Who do you think he is as the "emperor"? Wouldn't it be treasonous to spread the word? Wang Zhaomin understood what he meant. The Australians were trying to evade the county government and completely take away the administrative power of the county government. From now on, they could act openly and openly in the name of Lingao County of the Ming Dynasty. The calculation was not bad.
In the core areas ruled by the Ming Dynasty, this trick may not be easy to succeed. It is another matter in a small southern border county like Lingao, where the sky is high and the emperor is far away. The area is vast and sparsely populated, almost isolated from the rest of the world. Commodity exchanges are extremely underdeveloped and there is little population movement. News from inside and outside spread slowly. Most of the local gentry had not seen much of the world. The imperial examinations were not popular and they lacked influence in the officialdom. ,.