Chapter 1,607 The whole story

After Su You took his seat, he said, "Is everyone clear about what I said two days ago and today?"

Everyone expressed that they fully understood, and Su You then said: "It's good if it's clear, but what I want to tell you is that if something is not resolved, don't do anything like what I said two days ago.

good."

In the past two days, Su You encouraged everyone and drew a blueprint, allowing everyone to see the future opportunities in Hebei and the political achievements that he will achieve during his term of office.

Situ is really planning to make great use of the 15 million Hebei Development Fund that His Majesty previously allocated to Situ. The amount of benefits contained therein can almost be clearly explained in a compendium.

Now that Su You suddenly changed his tone, everyone couldn't help but wonder.

But I heard Su You say: "This matter is about official governance."

"Official administration is unclear, and all propaganda is empty talk. The bad apples are among our local officials. This plan can only become a tool for them to harm the people, harm the government, and line their own pockets."

Everyone is nervous. What do you mean? Is Situ worried about us?

Su You looked heavy and took out an emergency report from his wallet: "Last night, fires broke out in the three government offices of Bozhou, Boping County and Gaotang County at the same time. The fire locations were the accounting rooms where the account books are kept."

"Prefect Kuang, please give me an explanation."

Kuang Shigu stood up, wearing an old official robe and his boots were still patched, and said tremblingly: "The government is not strict. If something like this happens, I will accept the blame."

"Fortunately, what was burned was an expired blank account file that needed to be invalidated, so it did not cause any harm. When I go back, I will definitely reprimand you severely. As the New Year is approaching, you must be careful about burning candles to avoid disaster."

Su You smiled and said: "Prefect Kuang is so helpful. I want to check the blank account books, and the accounting offices of two counties in one state caught fire at the same time. And then you tell me it was an accident?"

Kuang Shigu bowed his hands to Su You, and then bowed his hands to his colleagues: "Shigu governed Bozhou with conscientiousness, fairness and justice."

"At that time, the river cut off Shanghuxun, Bozhou faced the flood, and the counties were hit by disasters. Even when Shigu took office, they still did not recover."

"Thieves were everywhere, and the people were in dire straits. It was Shigu who led the people of the state to rebuild their homes, restore people's livelihood, and form a protective armor to guard against the thieves."

"My performance evaluations for several years have all been top-notch. Afterwards, the court praised me and ordered me to join the court."

"Because I feel that I am not in harmony with the government, and the people want to stay, I do not ask for the civil service examination. In the official circles of Hebei Shilin, I have little reputation."

"Why, Situ wants to hold me accountable for this small matter?"

Kuang Shigu also had a good reputation in Hebei. He was characterized by being a noble man, living in poverty, being diligent, loving the people, and being law-abiding.

The Song Dynasty is so strange. Officials usually take exams every three years, but officials need to apply for this exam themselves. It is one of the procedures, called "Qing Quan".

Some officials, such as Cheng Yi, Wang Anshi, Fan Chunren, Su Che, etc., often refused to take the civil service examination and would rather give up the opportunity for promotion because they were not in harmony with the current dynasty, or they were obsessed with learning, or they had to take care of their father.

Such officials will often win a very high reputation among scholars - this is called maintaining integrity and honor, and not coveting salary and position.

Sure enough, as soon as Kuang Shigu said this, the state officials below became even more suspicious.

Su You waved his hand: "This is Wang Yanbi, the secretary of the Jiedu shogunate; this is Wang Cai, the judge of Jiedu; this is Sima Gao Shize."

"They just solved a big case."

After speaking, he nodded to Gao Shize, who went down to the stage and gave something in his hand to the state officials.

Several officials were shocked when they saw counterfeit banknotes, counterfeit banknotes with a face value of five guan!

Fifty or more counterfeit banknotes is a major case, and the sum total of the several cases involving officials from ten states is already enough!

But Gao Shize returned to the stage, picked up a willow box, opened it, and poured out the contents. There was actually a box full!

The timid ones among the state officials are already trembling with their legs. This must be worth more than 50,000 yuan. This is a huge case that will shock the whole world!

Su You said: "You can pick up the counterfeit banknotes and have a look. In fact, they are not very well made, and it is not too difficult for those who are more sophisticated to identify them."

"But criminals are also extremely cunning. Song Dynasty treasure banknotes with more than five guan are printed in five colors, which is extremely difficult to make. Therefore, they are limited to technology and only counterfeit treasure banknotes with three colors or less, and the maximum face value does not exceed five guan."

"For the common people in the countryside, they are often deceived by thieves because of their limited discernment."

"There are also places like Fireworks Willow Alley and Gambling Houses with dim lights, which are a good place for thieves to take action."

"If you take a closer look at the paper used for counterfeit banknotes, the quality is similar to the paper used for treasure banknotes. Although the watermark is not visible when exposed to light, the paper is still mixed with five-color South Sea abaca silk wadding, so it is also extremely deceptive."

"Everyone, the reason why you want to check for blank and discarded files is because the paper used for these counterfeit banknotes originally came from the Bianjing Banknote Paper Bureau of the Imperial Song Dynasty. It is specially used for printing accounting documents, housing and land deeds, and tax stamps for the government!"

There were low exclamations in the room, but Su You's cold voice was heard saying: "Prefect Kuang, the day before yesterday I ordered the state governments to check the blank documents, and your accounting offices in one state and two counties in Bozhou caught fire. Is it really true?

coincide?"

Kuang Shigu was unusually calm: "If you want to incriminate someone, why bother? I'm in Daming Mansion and haven't even left the shogunate. How can I still bribe the government officials, or possess the Taoist skills of the Heavenly Master, fly back to Bozhou and set fire to it?"

Su You smiled and said: "I only told you before that there was a fire in your Bozhou government office and the stalls were burned down. You said that fortunately what was burned was expired blank account files that needed to be invalidated. Prefect Kuang, how should you explain this?"

Kuang Shigu replied: "I know Situ's political style. Every time he goes to a place, he must first clean up the accounts and make statistics and coordinate. I will order the household to prepare the accounting files in advance for Situ's inquiry."

"So all the account books in Bozhou are in the official office, and the only ones stored in the archives are the blank ones. Isn't this reasonable?"

After saying that, he cupped his hands to Su You and said sternly: "Situ was favored by the imperial court and was ordered to govern Hebei. He did not put governance and people's livelihood first, but he doubted the imperial officials for no reason and used clever tricks to imprison him."

"I dare to ask Situ, is it really because of this compendium that you have called us here? Or is it to highlight the official authority?"

"Don't think that I don't know the identities of the people here. Wang Yanbi is the eldest son of the eldest princess of the Xu Kingdom; Gao Shi is the son of Gongji and the nephew of the Empress Dowager; Wang Cai will meet the eldest princess of the Shangjia Kingdom in the future."

"I also ask Situ to distinguish right from wrong and choose a clean and honest place. Don't hope to flatter your relatives and relatives. If you are dirty and honest, you will end up with the scholar-bureaucrats!"

"Huh?" Su You couldn't help laughing: "The prefect is really eloquent."

After scanning the other state officials with his eyes, Su You said: "That's why I want everyone to come together. I'm really afraid...I'm afraid of Hebei's official circles, because this case will create a trend of looking at officials with noble clan backgrounds."

"In view of the misfortune of the previous generation, our dynasty met with the scholar-bureaucrats and governed the world with them. We strictly exercised checks and balances on the officials, relatives, and nobles."

"But this does not mean that when middle-ranking officials, relatives, and nobles serve as officials, they cannot even perform their normal duties."

"Sincerity lies within, appearance lies within the exterior, so a gentleman must be cautious about his independence. Those who can do it, what supervision should they fear?"

"So I believe that there must be strict checks and balances on middle-ranking officials, relatives, and nobles, but scholar-bureaucrats should also be willing to accept supervision for themselves, so as to help themselves be sincere and fearless."

"And everyone needs to understand one more thing, that is, the imperial court's supervision system is not aimed at the vast majority of clean, loyal, diligent and respectful gentlemen here, but is aimed at those who sneak into our group, tarnish the reputation of scholar-bureaucrats, and chant daily

Hypocrites who are high-sounding in their poems and books, but who secretly take bribes and pervert the law to commit male theft and female prostitution are really villains!"

"So we don't have to worry about the identity of the supervisor, but we need to worry about whether we are afraid of being supervised!"

"As the saying goes, if you are upright and don't be afraid of a slanted shadow, you must first understand which is the foundation and which is the end!"

Kuang Shigu's expression changed. His attempt to provoke a confrontation between his relatives and the scholar-bureaucrats failed.
Chapter completed!