Empress: Your Majesty, please respect yourself, I don't want to be promoted

With Lu Chen taking control of Yuzhou, the official circles in Yuzhou and Suizhou, which had been like a stagnant pool, became completely agitated.

Those officials who directly conscripted labor without obtaining a government order, regardless of their official position, including their minions, subordinates and their families involved in this matter, were all arrested by Xuanji Guards and taken to the prison in Yuzhou City to await their release.

There were a total of 19 officials who conscripted labor labor privately. Among them, like Luan Yu, who forced the people to death and caused extremely bad influence, there were five officials. All of them were sentenced to death by Lu Chen on the spot, and they were executed directly three days later.

Although the other fourteen officials did not cause serious harm, they all affected the people's livelihood to varying degrees, and the private collection of labor had violated the laws of the court, so although they were not executed, Lu Chen did not let them go. Instead of returning to his original post, he wrote a letter to the Empress, and let the Empress personally punish her.

Of course, pure destruction is meaningless.

Even if when he beheaded the five top county magistrates, all the surrounding people clapped their hands and applauded, Lu Chen would not think that just killing them would solve the problem.

Life has to go on after all.

It is impossible for a county to have no county magistrate, no master book, no official post, no yamen for a long time, otherwise troubles will arise sooner or later.

Therefore, while removing those evil dog officials, it is necessary to arrange for them to be banned as soon as possible, at least someone who can temporarily act as the county magistrate.

And this person cannot be a traditional bureaucrat.

He didn't want to just slaughter a few fat ducks who were already full but still wanted to eat, and then directly support a hungry duck with an empty stomach and thinking about how to fill his stomach all day long, otherwise the suffering of the people would not only be unstoppable in the end. It gets better and gets worse.

The interest relationship among officials is inherently intertwined. You have me in you and you in me. Now there are 19 vacancies for county magistrates, which is an earthquake for Yuzhou official circles.

So, the candidates he could think of...

"What? Let the humble and other warriors temporarily serve as county magistrates, chief registrars, etc.?"

Zhizhou Yamen, lobby.

Fang Yu and Xuanjiwei stared at Lu Chen with their eyes wide open.

"How does this work?"

That's right, Lu Chen's plan is to send these former Xuanwu Guards Qianhu, Baihu, and other commanders of the Cangming Army, and Tongzhi Xuanjiwei, to serve as county magistrates temporarily.

But upon hearing his assignment, Fang Yu and the Xuanjiwei who had been named shook their heads desperately like a rattle, and refused: "The lowly ones are just rough people. How can I be qualified for the post of county magistrate and master secretary?"

"The way of sages? Heh..."

Lu Chen suddenly sneered with disdain: "Do you think that only those who practice the way of sages are qualified to be officials?"

Hearing this, Fang Yu hesitated for a moment, and then honestly said what was in his heart: "This has been the case for thousands of years, my lord governor, is there something wrong with this?"

Lu Chen narrowed his eyes.

Xuanjiwei is the empress' eyes and ears, and he will definitely report to the empress what he has seen and heard about Yuzhou, what the governor has done, what he has said, and what he thinks.

If you know that he is a rebel... tsk tsk...

At this point, Lu Chen curled his lips, and said calmly: "The Tao of sages teaches loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, it teaches self-cultivation in order to achieve the Dao, it teaches filial piety to parents, respect and love for elders, it teaches loyalty, etiquette, honesty and shame. , advocated that "the monks are safe, the world will be settled", but they did not teach how to be lenient and love the people, how to act when the people are in dire straits, and did not teach how to increase grain production, how to control floods, how to make the people If we are rich, how can we make the people live and work in peace and contentment, and we don’t have the idea of ​​[government with leniency and love for the people].”

After a pause, he said again: "The way of sages is just the basic principle of being a human being and the foundation of monks. Although it is important, it is not the way of doing things after all. It is not enough to enrich the country, strengthen the people, and stabilize the world."

Hearing this never-before-heard remarks, including Fu Yu, all the Xuanji Guards were stunned.

Especially Fu Wei.

She is not just a general.

Although she is proficient in martial arts, her literary skills are not bad either.

Both civil and military skills are not just a word used to praise and flatter others. It is just literacy or the ability to write a few simple articles, but it cannot be regarded as such a high evaluation.

Therefore, Lu Chen's words had a much greater impact on her than other Xuanji guards who had never understood the way of a saint.

Regarding Lu Chen's remarks that broke the traditional cognition, for a while, she was completely lost in thought.

Lu Chen sighed suddenly, and continued: "I don't blame you for sticking to the rules. After all, I also witnessed the absurd actions of Luan Yu and others, and saw the tragedy of Gou'er Village and Qu'er Village. It wasn’t until those stupid officials who didn’t care about the life and death of the people felt the deep-rooted hatred of Li Wei and other villagers towards the Ping county government that they realized a truth.”

Fang Yu carefully glanced at her immediate superior, seeing her frowning and thinking, so she couldn't hold back her curiosity and asked softly, "What's the reason?"

Lu Chen didn't answer directly, but turned his head, looked to the east, and said quietly:

"This is related to the fate of the dynasty and the change of governance and chaos. Your Majesty needs to know the truth."

As soon as this remark came out, everyone's expression froze at the same time, and they didn't dare to ask any more.

"Anyway."

Lu Chen turned around, walked slowly in front of Fang Yu, and said solemnly: "You just need to remember that as an official, you should care about the people, think about what the people think, and worry about what the people want. As long as you do this, You are a thousand times better than those stupid officials who only hold sage books to find words and excerpt sentences, only know that practice is not easy, and spend all day working hard, not knowing the hardships of people's livelihood, disregarding the life and death of the people, and allowing their minions to bully the people, let alone Luan Yu and his like."

"As long as you can make the common people earn enough to earn enough food and clothing to live and work in peace and contentment, no matter whether you have fame or not, what your level of cultivation is, what your talents are, and whether you know the way of a sage, you are a good official."

Hearing this, a strange emotion suddenly rose from the bottom of everyone's heart.

However, Fang Yu still has some concerns.

"However, my lord governor, we are Xuanjiwei. Your majesty has something to say, our duty is to protect you, my lord. If you go to become the county magistrate, not to mention that your name is not right, your majesty, we will how to explain"

In this regard, Lu Chen just silently pulled out the sword of extreme dao.

"This governor is under the emperor's order. As long as it is a matter of the two states, the governor can decide with one word. This is His Majesty's order. How can it not be justified? If anyone has any objections to this, the governor will deal with it. Err There is no need to worry, just do what you are supposed to do."

"As for Your Majesty, the governor will tell you, you, don't worry about it."

Hearing this, Fang Yu and the others suddenly didn't know how to respond, so they all looked at Fu Yu.

Sensing the gazes of the crowd, Fu Yu immediately restrained her mind, thought for a while, and then nodded slightly.

"Listen to Governor Lu. As for Governor Lu, you don't have to worry about it. With me here, absolutely no one can threaten Governor Lu."

Hearing this, Lu Chen couldn't help but twitch his mouth.

Don't be so awesome, give those young people a chance, okay? !

Fang Yu naturally didn't know what Lu Chen was thinking at this time. Since the boss had said so, they didn't hesitate any longer and directly bowed to accept the order.

And at this moment, a Xuanji Guard walked in.

"Your Excellency, Yu, Zhao Ping and Cui Gu, the prefects of the two prefectures of the Sui Dynasty, are asking to see you."