Chapter 777 Sophistry

The county magistrate of Dingshui was a middle-aged man in his forties, with a carefully trimmed mustache and a dignified look in his official robes.

At this time, the county magistrate was writing furiously in the study of the yamen with an oil lamp on, and the waste paper piled up.

Originally, Dingshui had too many official duties to keep the county magistrate busy until midnight. He was now writing a memorial to the superiors. I don’t know what happened today, I was restless, and I was not very satisfied with it after writing many times, so I dragged it until midnight.

After a while, the county magistrate tried to put down the brush in one breath, and waited for the ink to dry, so there would be nothing to do today.

He was about to get up to get some hot water, but suddenly, a hard object pressed against his back:

"Don't move, are you the county magistrate of Dingshui?"

Suddenly, there was another person in the room, and everyone would be scared.

But the county magistrate was only slightly stunned at first, then relaxed and answered in a neither humble nor arrogant manner:

"It was me."

"I ask you, why do you feed bran to the refugees outside the city? It's obviously for feeding livestock!"

"Hahaha, you guys are all the same."

The county magistrate was still not afraid at all, and even laughed.

"Those are refugees? You are wrong, lady, you know that these refugees are no longer human beings, they are livestock, and they can do anything for food."

"Stop talking nonsense, I am asking you!"

Yang Yiyi was almost enraged, and she only needed an impulse to smash the county magistrate's head into his chest with the steel mace in her hand.

"Okay, lady, if you want to know, I'll tell you, there is no food, so we can only feed the refugees with bran."

"Nonsense, the court clearly sent down relief grain!"

"Yes, it was sent down, but how many people can the food given by the court feed? How long can it last? Lady, do you know?"

The county magistrate was still calm and said calmly:

"Disaster relief is impossible. The emperor only knows to distribute food and send people to check. He doesn't care whether these people are full or not."

"Nonsense, it's obvious that you sold the relief grain!"

"It seems that the lady has asked in Dingshui. Well, have you found out where the bran I feed the refugees comes from?"

Yang Yiyi really didn't know this. She asked around in the city during the day and came here in a hurry to question him at night.

"I sold the relief grain, but I bought it for bran. Otherwise, how could I feed the refugees?"

"If you don't have enough grain, you can ask the court for it. You are clearly trying to make a profit from it."

"The court? Oh, where does the court have grain? The years have been bad, and we can't collect grain everywhere. The grain we have is barely enough. There was a disaster in Quzhou, and there were unusual movements in the north. Although my Yuezhou Kingdom doesn't have to face the northern barbarians, it can't stay out of it. The emperor has transferred grain and weapons and armor to the north, and even my official warehouse for water management has been transferred away to fill the deficit. How much grain do you think the court has?"

Of the ten countries in the Central Plains, only two actually border the north, and Yuezhou Kingdom is not adjacent to the north.

But everyone knows the principle of the lips and teeth being cold. Normally, the ten countries can fight each other, but once they encounter foreign invasions, they must unite as one, otherwise they will be destroyed one day.

Therefore, due to the recent unrest in the north, the other eight countries, including Yuezhou, have mobilized food and military equipment to the two northern countries in order to block the north.

But at this time, Quzhou was also hit by a drought, and a large amount of food was needed for disaster relief, so all the things were squeezed together.

Yang Yiyi also heard about the unrest in the north, and Li Chengxi specifically said not to go to the north, but she never connected the two things.

I wanted to question the county magistrate, but it turned out that he was a little lacking in confidence. Then Yang Yiyi thought again, no matter what the reason was, the county magistrate must have embezzled a lot of money in this.

"Yes, I did take advantage, not only me, but also everyone from top to bottom reached out for the relief grain, but so what?"

"What? You, a corrupt official, have no shame at all?"

"Why should I be ashamed? One pound of fine grain can be exchanged for five pounds of bran. The food that saves one person can save five people. Why should I be ashamed?"

"Sophistry! You are avoiding the important point. Corruption is corruption!"

The county magistrate sighed:

"The female knight is not experienced in the world. It seems that she does not understand the ways of the world. If the officials are not full, who will care about the people below? Yes, there are honest officials, and I admire honest officials, but are honest officials enough? Look at the county next door. They are honest officials, and they are upright officials. As a result, the refugees died within a month after they arrived there. Half, many people have fled to my place, and now they are still living well. "

"An honest official is a question of moral character, that is, he is incompetent, you can't generalize!"

"You are wrong, he is too honest, nothing is easy to do, and he doesn't understand the ways of the world."

The county magistrate shook his head and said:

"Lady, do you know why we are called Dingshui here? It is because we have been suffering from droughts for years and lack of water. County magistrates of all dynasties always reported to the court, hoping to allocate some money to repair reservoirs and ditches, but they always fell on deaf ears. If it weren't for my efforts, how could there be those reservoirs and ditches outside? What does it take to make an effort? Of course it's money, no one will do things for you for free. "

It is indeed the truth. If there is no benefit in doing things for you, why should people do things for you?

If they don't do it, they are not wrong. In this case, you have to give them benefits.

"No matter how capable you are, you can't erase the fact that you are a corrupt official!"

"I have never said that I am an honest official. Even if the emperor is here, I dare to say that I have done the work and I have taken the money. You can check how many achievements I have made since I became the magistrate of Dingshui County, and you can also check how much money I have embezzled."

"Then can't you be an honest official and petition for the people?"

"You heroes are so high up that you can talk nonsense. I am not greedy, where does the money come from? I am not greedy, where does the money from personal relationships come from? I am not greedy, who among the officials inside and outside the yamen will work for me?"

This man is quite frank.

"I am not a gentleman either. I also want gold, silver and jewelry, and I also want fine clothes and delicious food. Who will give you money if I don't have money?"

"In the final analysis, it's for yourself!"

"Of course, what's wrong? If a person doesn't work for himself, he will be punished by heaven and earth. I have studied hard for more than ten years. In order to support my studies, my parents got up early and worked late to grind tofu. After a long time, they passed the imperial examination just to make a living? Am I wronged?"

If an official doesn't make decisions for the people, he might as well go home and sell sweet potatoes.

This is too idealistic and too self-righteous.

Just like today's students, six years of primary school, six years of middle school, four years of university, and postgraduate entrance examinations, more than ten or twenty years of hard study, finally found a job, and at the end of the month, when they counted the accounts, hey, this month's work was in vain.

Who can accept this?

Yang Yiyi has hesitated. She doesn't understand the ways of the world, but she is not stupid.

Originally, she wanted to ask for punishment, but she was stunned by what she said.

"Lady, you are here today, I guess you must have trained hard in the cold winter and the hot summer, and you have practiced kung fu for more than ten years. Are you willing to go home and farm? Don't you want to make a name for yourself? What's the difference between you and me?"

"Nonsense, I am upright and I am not the same kind of person as you who are greedy!"

"Indeed, I am not the same kind, but you obviously don't understand that a sword can't save the world, but corrupt officials like me save people."

This sentence is a killer.

The county magistrate felt the hard object behind him loosen, and looked back, but there was no figure, only the open window was shaking slightly...