Zai Chun's face darkened at that time, but he didn't say anything. Is Weng Tonghe going to take revenge on him now? The responsibility does not belong to the Minister of Military and Aircraft, or to the Six Ministries and Nine Ministers, then whose responsibility does it belong to?
After all, isn’t it mine? You Weng Tonghe cried at me several times before, and then scolded Ermao. Seeing as I didn't listen to you in the end, are you going to take revenge?
No matter what you say today, I will endure it!
Zai Chun suppressed the anger in his heart and wanted to hear what Weng Tonghe had to say.
"My lords!" the old man said angrily, "Your Majesty is convening an emergency imperial meeting today. What he wants is for everyone to come up with solutions to the problem, not to discuss who is responsible!"
"Those are all things that need to be done after the disaster is over. Mr. Baojun, you have time to blame yourself, why not think of more solutions!"
"Actually, when it comes to finding responsibility, it's easy to find. I don't want to save face for anyone. This snow disaster is partly a test from God to the imperial court, and partly it's the corruption and incompetence of local officials!"
"Hey... Your Majesty! When it comes to responsibility, I am the first responsible person!"
"Ah? Why did Master Weng say this? How does this have anything to do with you? You..." Zai Chun was dumbfounded. He found that Weng Tonghe did not throw any dirty water on himself, but instead took the responsibility for himself.
"Yes! Of course it is my responsibility. I am in charge of the Ministry of Etiquette and the Censor... The moral cultivation of scholars in the world needs to be enlightened!"
"These local officials...were all scholars in those days. They had their heads hung up and their buttocks stabbed, and they worked hard to write eight-legged essays. They also entered this officialdom with a lot of righteousness in their chests!"
"But I didn't teach them well, I didn't supervise them well, and they became like this now... I feel so sad, I failed in my duty! Woohoo..." Weng Tonghe actually cried as he said this.
This cry made Zai Chun feel a little helpless, "Well... Master Weng is blaming himself for the mistake. They are responsible for their bad behavior and it has nothing to do with Master Weng..."
"Hey... no matter what your Majesty says, I can't get over this hurdle in my heart! In the final analysis, this year's snow disaster is due to the negligence of the seventh- and eighth-grade officials in these prefectures and counties!"
"No need to check, I can guess what they are thinking! On the one hand, the snowstorm blocked the news, they relaxed their vigilance, and thought that the number of deaths was the number reported!"
"I never expected that in more closed villages, hundreds or even thousands of people would die of freezing and starvation! This kind of fluke mentality is still laziness in the end!"
"Their biggest crime is that they refuse to take responsibility. They always want to postpone it, hoping that other places will report the disaster first, test the court's reaction, and then respond!"
"This is just a dirty trick learned from an old fox in the officialdom! For the sake of his own official position, he is completely wasting the lives of the people!"
"If they are unwilling to take responsibility, they are cowardly and incompetent. Not only are they lazy, they are also cowardly!"
"The third thing is corruption! I know very well that these dirty officials must have attacked the wealthy households in various prefectures and counties. Each county has collected hundreds of thousands of disaster relief money, and there is no telling how much corruption there is!"
"Those who are officials are given big heads, and those who are minor officials are given small heads. Some people eat meat, and some people drink soup... Anyway, they don't care about the life and death of the people!"
"Laziness, cowardice, corruption...are you considered a scholar? Even the books of sages have been read into the belly of a dog!"
Today, Weng Tonghe's performance impressed all the ministers. This was completely a blow to his own power, directly tearing apart all the ugliness of scholars after becoming officials!
Such a performance left the officials stunned and they didn't know what to say!
At this point, Weng Tonghe wiped away his tears, "I hate it... What I hate most now is, why are all the local officials in the world like this?"
"Now that the disaster is serious, they have the responsibility, but in the future, they will have to contribute to disaster relief!"
"The imperial court hates them, but it still has to use them... wu wu wu... in the final analysis, these officials are connected together and have become a force!"
"This is not a special case of one prefecture or one county. This is a common problem in the entire Shanxi, Zhili, Henan, Shandong... and even all provinces in the Qing Dynasty!"
"The court cannot run the country without these people. We can't replace them all, right? If they are all replaced, the foundation of the court will be in chaos, and there will be no one to handle government affairs!"
"Hey... after all, these people have to handle all the disaster relief procedures in person! The grain, medicinal materials, and coal issued by the imperial court... will eventually be compiled by them, and then they will organize the people's power to go to the villages below. Go send it!"
"Without this group of people, the imperial court will no longer have an administrative system to govern, and things will be impossible to solve! When I think of this, I will be totally destroyed!"
Oops... When it comes to this, many veterans have already understood and said to themselves that this old man is smart. This is retreat in order to advance. It is obviously to scold these officials, but in fact, the subtext is to protect these local officials!
This is a secret reminder to the emperor that this kind of corruption has long become a reality that the law does not punish the public, and you cannot change it easily!
If it were not for a young king like Emperor Tongzhi, if the person sitting on the throne at this moment was a monarch in his thirties, Weng Tonghe would not have spoken like this.
It was precisely because the old man knew that Emperor Tongzhi was too young and impulsive that he killed tens of thousands of rebellious Eight Banners factory slaves on both sides of the Qinghe River.
This young man has great firepower. If his temper gets stronger, he might arrest and kill all the officials in the affected prefectures and counties in the four provinces. He can do it.
We can only retreat in order to advance, and save the country through curves and slowly instill this truth into the little emperor. This old man is so clever!
Baojun, who was kneeling on the ground, couldn't help but provoke Brother Thumb in his heart. Sure enough, Emperor Tongzhi really calmed down his fiery temper after hearing this.
"Haha... I'm really heartbroken! I'm heartbroken... Forget it, let's discuss the matter of accountability later! Master Weng, did you just say that you have a way to solve the problem of the last few miles of disaster relief?"
"tell me the story……"
Weng Tonghe's eyes flashed with excitement, "Hey! Of course I have a way, but we have to find this way from the disciples of our saint!"
"What's bothering the court now is not that there's no food, but that the roads are blocked due to heavy snow and the food can't be transported to the various mountain villages. Even the gods can't do anything about it!"
"A county has thousands of villages. How do you expect the limited manpower of a county government to be sent here? It's simply impossible, let alone there are so many mountainous areas!"
"So at this time, we must rely on the teachings of saints and the landlords and gentry who are well-educated and sensible!"
"Your Majesty! Please decree that the local squires and educated landlords in the disaster-stricken areas take the initiative to open cabins to provide relief to the surrounding villagers! He asked all the victims who received relief to sign and sign!"
"The disaster relief work in that place was well done and few people died in that place. The court will reward these landlords and gentry!"
"The court can repay the grain they send out at the highest rate of interest... If he does not need the court to repay, then give him a favor and allow the local area to build archways and stone tablets to record their family's achievements!"
"Any squire family that can provide tens of thousands of shi of food for disaster relief...can the imperial court reward them with the title of Juren!"
"Although it sounds a bit like selling an official position, but this is to save lives for disaster relief! Human life is more valuable than heaven!"
"The imperial court has provided hundreds of positions for people to be elected, so this snow disaster is not a problem at all!"
