In Hongxiufang, Zhu Yuanzhang was aggressive and believed that Li Jin and these officials were secretly communicating with each other.
"Why did you give them so much money?"
"You dare to say you didn't bribe them?"
Li Jin looked innocent and explained:
"I bribe? What do they have that I can bribe?"
"This money is just their salary!"
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he jumped up like a cat whose tail was stepped on:
"Nonsense!"
"We have never heard that Ming officials can have such a high monthly salary!"
"This is the money you embezzled from the disaster relief bank, and you are dividing the spoils here."
Li Jin was shocked. This old Huang had two brushes. He could guess this, but the brushes had no hair. After all, the pattern was too small.
"Old man, you really guessed it right. The money was indeed taken from the disaster relief fund."
"But what we are doing is not dividing the spoils, but providing honest silver to officials. Only honest and capable officials are eligible to receive this money."
"You bastard, you are a piece of shit. I think this is corruption in disguise."
Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry at Li Jin's words.
No matter what Li Jin said, you still took out our money and distributed it to those corrupt officials.
What is an honest bank? Aren't you the one who cleverly set up a name to embezzle money from the disaster relief bank? You really treat us like a three-year-old child?
"Old man, it's short, your vision is short!"
"As the saying goes, to save the people, save the officials first. If you can't even save the officials, let alone save the people?"
"If these officials are going to starve to death, do you still expect them to have the heart to distribute food to the people?"
Li Jin stretched out two fingers and made a few gestures in front of Zhu Yuanzhang.
"It's ridiculous. We have never heard of saving officials first before saving the people."
"Officials are the parents of the people. There is no reason for parents to be full and their children to be hungry."
"Even if our parents starved to death, they never starved to death. I think all you dog officials have forgotten the principles of being an official."
Zhu Yuanzhang cursed loudly and wanted to spit in Li Jin's face.
"This is a fact!!"
Li Jin's voice was louder than Zhu Yuanzhang:
"There are hundreds of thousands of disaster victims in Yiwu! Who will distribute disaster relief food to them?"
"Should you issue it or should I? Shouldn't it depend on officials, big and small?"
"Who is going to lead these victims to rebuild their homes, you or me?"
"Don't we still have to rely on the officials below? Only after I feed them will they be willing to work for me!"
"Do you think that just by relying on the salaries issued by the court, these officials can work on the construction site day after day?"
"Dream on you!! How can you risk your life with less than five dan of food a month??"
"What did you say?"
Zhu Yuanzhang stared, unable to believe that these words came from Li Jin's mouth.
"Don't stare so wide."
"Do you know how many honest officials there have been and how many corrupt officials there have been in this world throughout the ages?"
Li Jin directly raised the most critical question and asked Zhu Yuanzhang.
"Integrity officials are as rare as a phoenix, but corrupt officials are as numerous as an ox."
Zhu Yuanzhang said coldly that he had the same attitude towards all officials in the world. As long as they were officials, there were not many good people.
"Yes, then if I don't rely on them, who should I rely on?"
"Do you want me to watch these victims starve to death?"
"Do we prefer to starve the victims to death rather than take advantage of corrupt officials?"
"I think you are putting the cart before the horse. Being an official must be people-oriented. Only the people are the most important."
Li Jin followed Zhu Yuanzhang's words and directly silenced Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang's face turned red, and he finally choked out:
"No matter what, you are corrupt officials, and the current emperor will never let you go."
"Why can't I explain it to you?"
Li Jin was speechless at this stubborn old man and asked:
"Don't keep looking at that little money for disaster relief. What can you do with that little money?"
"Didn't the old man see the buildings being built everywhere in Yiwu when he came to Yiwu? Didn't he see the wide roads outside the city?"
"Don't you see the difference between officials in Yiwu County and officials in other places?"
"We saw it! But so what?"
Zhu Yuanzhang was dismissive. He didn't have much idea about these.
"Old man, haven't you ever settled this account?"
Li Jin continued:
"Let's talk about officials first. Don't officials who work so diligently and conscientiously deserve to be rewarded?"
“Are they not worthy of the reward of honest government?”
"When the floods had not receded, it was the magistrate of Yiwu County who led people to stick to the river embankment, and this prevented the floods from continuing to overflow."
"When the floods receded, it was the officials of Yiwu County who set an example and quickly stabilized the people's hearts. This allowed the people of Yiwu County to get through the most difficult time smoothly."
"Now Yiwu County is in full swing to provide work relief and build various facilities. These same officials are on the front line. They have been working like this for three months."
"Can you say that such an official is a dog official? Is he a faint official who doesn't care about the life and death of the people?"
Zhu Yuanzhang was silent. Even if he was picky, after hearing the efforts of these officials, he could not say anything wrong.
Seeing this, Li Jin continued to strike while the railroad was hot:
“Let’s talk about the work-for-relief program in Yiwu County.”
"These facilities just built cannot be bought with a mere 300,000 taels of silver."
"Under the leadership of Yiwu County officials, the newly cultivated farmland has reached 150,000 acres, twice the previous amount. This means that after next year, the price of food in Yiwu County will be greatly reduced."
"This can greatly improve the quality of life of the people. There will no longer be a situation where two taels of silver cannot buy one stone of food."
"Let's talk about roads. Yiwu County has built six new roads leading to the outside world. As long as these roads are completed, Yiwu County will no longer be a small county with inconvenient transportation."
"It will be a pipeline connecting Jiangnan and Fujian provinces, which means Yiwu County will soon become a business gathering place."
"Not only that, but there are also water conservancy, river embankments and other buildings. These are all projects that will benefit the future. As long as they are completed, the yield per mu in Yiwu County will also undergo earth-shaking changes."
"Let alone three hundred thousand taels for these things, even one million taels would be difficult to achieve."
"Old man, haven't you ever thought about how this money was obtained?"
Zhu Yuanzhang was a little confused by what Li Jin said.
He obviously only asked the Ministry of Accounts to allocate 300,000 taels of silver, and some of it was embezzled by these bastards. Why did he seem to have done so much more?
While Zhu Yuanzhang was still thinking with his head down, Zhu Biao next to him said:
“Is this what is called cash-for-work?”
Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes lit up, yes, isn't the only difference in this disaster relief work the work-for-relief work mentioned by Li Jin?
Since there have been changes, it means that it all stems from this policy.
But no matter how miraculous it is to provide relief through work, it is impossible for him to create so much food out of thin air to provide relief to the victims?
Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao looked at Li Jin at the same time, their eyes full of doubts, hoping that Li Jin could give a reasonable explanation.
