Great Tang Southern Emperor

"..." Looking at Li Jingye, Li Zhen shook her head and said nothing. Speaking of Li Jingye's appearance today, in fact, she also has a certain responsibility. He thought that he was too young, so he should study in the academy, but it turned out that this study lasted seven years, and he was imprisoned in a small world for seven years. Such a long period of tempering was enough to change anyone's temperament.

Speaking of which, Wentian Shuyuan was originally a five-year school, and after five years, he would be expelled from the college regardless of whether he passed the qualifications, but because of Li Jingye's personality, he was not used to it in the first two years, and he had conflicts with his classmates and professors many times. Therefore, Li Zhen was extra merciful and kept him for two more years, but who knew that such a defective product was produced, which made Li Zhen very disappointed and a little guilty...

Fortunately, Li Jingye's change was not fundamental. He just left the academy and brought out his habits from the academy. He just needs to experience more things, and his personality will eventually return.But this time Li Zhen is going to release him outside to see if the external environment can bring him back to his original temperament.If it is possible, Li Zhen will naturally reuse him, if not... then Li Zhen will also protect his glory for the rest of his life...

The speed of the fleet was still very fast, and it happened to catch up with the wind, so when the fleet arrived at the Quanzhou Naval Base, it happened to be able to have a dinner.

"Hahaha, finally we're here. No one is allowed to leave today. Once you're on my land, I'll let you have a meal." Cheng Chuliang was very happy when he came to his land, and with a big wave of his hand, all Everyone's dinner is taken care of.

"No need, you should keep more private money. Bengong knows Qinghe's character. How much pocket money can she give you? You should save some money, and don't go to the bank for a loan when you run out of money." Li Zhen rejected Cheng Chuliang's kindness with a smile. He knew that the Navy made money, and Li Zhen knew that Cheng Chuliang had private money, but his wife was Li Jing, the princess of Qinghe.

Unlike Cheng Chuliang who spends money lavishly, Li Jing has a stingy character. As the princess of the Tang Dynasty, Cheng Chuliang is in charge of her. It is said that when he was in Chang'an, Cheng Chuliang's pocket money for a day was only two renminbi. ——This is a large amount for ordinary people, but as the top second generation of Datang, Cheng Chuliang was also a wealthy young man who spent money like water before he got married. According to him, as long as he goes out, he must spend at least ten More than two, if you meet something you like, even if you spend a few thousand taels, it's not uncommon... But what about now?Two coins?What can I do?

So after spending his pocket money and private house money several times, Cheng Chuliang had to go to the bank for a loan—until now, he still owes the bank a lot of debt.

"Uh...but what should they do? Your Highness, you finally came to Quanzhou once, so let your subordinates do their best as landlords?" Cheng Chuliang asked, pointing at Li Zhen's guards.

"Isn't this at the naval base? Can you still starve to death? If you are really sorry, just ask the cook to cook something good." Li Zhen said casually, the navy meal itself is the best of all arms (the army is the best) Needless to say, the Air Force’s food may be the most reasonable, but the taste is not good. After all, the Air Force needs to maintain weight, and more nutritious meals, while the Navy can eat seafood every day, and the treatment is definitely the top), if No matter how hard the cook is, and using more high-quality ingredients, the taste will not be worse than that in a big restaurant.

"Your Highness, do you also eat navy meals?" Cheng Chuliang asked.

"I don't need it. You change your clothes in a while. Let's go out for a stroll. I want to go out to see the development of Quanzhou. Let's just eat something." Although Quanzhou is also under the rule of the palace, but for the The attention here is far less than that of Yuezhou. After all, Yuezhou is Li Zhen's base camp. Although he often pays attention to Quanzhou, he learns more from newspapers and rarely visits in person. The last time Li Zhen came to Quanzhou , It was still half a year ago, and now half a year has passed, Li Zhen needs to see if Quanzhou's development has progressed.

"My subordinate understands."

……

Chapter 1066 The Wrath of Thunder - Corruption

Chapter 13 Fury of Thunder - Corruption Issues

Soon, several people had already changed their clothes, left the base through a remote passage, and easily got mixed into Quanzhou City—the reason why it was so easy, apart from the darkness, was that Quanzhou City had no city ​​defense.

In fact, except for some cities whose military positions are indeed very important in Lingnan today, the rest, including Yuezhou, are cities without city walls, which greatly expands the development space of the city.What's more, if the enemy really hits the city, what's the use of having an extra city wall?It's just a little more delay. What's the difference between early death and late death?

"Well, I haven't been here for half a year. The development of Quanzhou is still very good." Watching the sunset, Quanzhou City was not affected by the weather at all. All the shops had already lit up their lanterns and greeted customers hard. Yelling hard in the planned area, countless pedestrians wandering, eating or playing, together with the rising smoke, form a perfect picture - I believe that this scene is seen by some painters or poets , Maybe it can stimulate their inspiration, and it may not necessarily produce some masterpieces handed down from generation to generation.

"That's not necessarily the case." Cheng Chuliang didn't quite agree with Li Zhen's admiration, and retorted: "Didn't Your Highness have a saying? Behind the prosperity, there is endless darkness."

"How to say? Is there any darkness in this city... What do you want to say?" Li Zhen pointed to the lanterns on the side of the road. The prosperity of Quanzhou is not much worse than that of Yuezhou. What Cheng Chuliang said It's too abrupt.It's just that Li Zhen also knew that Cheng Chuliang was never the kind of person who talked nonsense. Since he said so, Li Zhen would inevitably have doubts.

Cheng Chuliang didn't answer Li Zhen's question, but pointed to the front and said, "Your Highness, if you can still say that after seeing the previous situation, then this subordinate has nothing to say."

"What do you mean?"

Li Zhen walked forward quickly. After walking less than 500 meters, she saw a huge construction site. It seemed that the road was being repaired, and the roadside was full of materials.Although it was late in the evening, the construction site was still buzzing with people. Hundreds of workers were waving tools and struggling on the construction site, and there were a few foremen beside them shouting: "Everyone, work hard, today! The plan is about to be completed, and I will invite everyone to eat meat after the completion..."

"Oh~" the workers cheered.

"Strange, I remember that when I came here half a year ago, the road in Quanzhou had just been repaired." Although the work on the construction site was in full swing, Li Zhen felt more and more strange as she looked at it happily, and gradually frowned: "Could it be that what happened here? Disasters? Roads were destroyed? And when did eating meat become a welfare? I remember that Lingnan issued a special regulation, but anyone engaged in heavy physical labor must have meat for three meals a day..."

If Li Zhen remembers correctly, this road should be called Quanzhou Road. It is the most important main road in Quanzhou City. Together with the other three main roads, Quanzhou City is divided into nine areas. When he came here half a year ago, he came from here Walking along this road, he was full of praise for this road, which made the face of the governor of Yuezhou who greeted him quite radiant.

But it's only been half a year?Has the road been rebuilt?What happened to all of this?

"Where is there any disaster? And what disaster can be hidden from your eyes and ears, Your Highness?" Cheng Chuliang sneered when he heard the words: "To be honest, this road was fine a month ago, and my subordinates still use this road to transport supplies However, this incident actually happened only a few days ago..."

"..." Li Zhen's face became gloomy, he already understood what happened—isn't it the same in later generations?All kinds of buildings are demolished and rebuilt, built and demolished again, so the left hand is replaced by the right hand, and the replaced layers are full of oil and water...

"Okay, that's great. I really didn't expect this kind of thing to happen again under the command of this palace." Li Zhen laughed back angrily. He didn't reject corruption. A country with such a large machine cannot guarantee every Every part is perfect. In fact, in Li Zhen's eyes, a capable corrupt official is easier to accept than an incompetent and honest official. What's more, after so many years of development in Lingnan, even the most remote state capital, a year The tax revenue is almost equivalent to that of a central state.

In fact, some cities in the mountains are developing better than outside. After all, there are still many treasures in the mountains. In the past, there were no roads to transport them out.But now Li Zhen has spread the expressway network all over Lingnan, and the roads are open, and the good things in the mountains can be sold at high prices outside-every time they go out of the mountains, they can earn a lot of money, so that the lives of some people in the state capital It is better than the common people outside.If it were not limited by the insufficient population base, I am afraid that all the states in the entire Lingnan Road could become at least the level of Zhongzhou.

At this time, Lingnan can be said to be full of gold. As the managers of wealth, even if the government at all levels has no intention of corruption, the annual income of the chief official of a state is at least [-] taels. In a rich land, there are naturally more corrupt officials.

In fact, every year when checking the finances, Li Zhen will find that there will always be about 10 taels of money missing from the books, which should be divided up by corrupt officials. However, the ability of this group of corrupt officials is not bad, the money they embezzled is far less than the money created by their ability, so Li Zhen didn't care about them.

But corruption is okay, but it can't be too much, especially matters related to people's livelihood are Li Zhen's taboo, but anyone who dares to be sloppy in this kind of matter, Li Zhen will never let it go lightly - before building the Lingnan Highway Network At that time, some officials colluded with businessmen to shoddy high-quality cement, and even simply mixed high-quality cement with plant ash and other impurities to make huge profits.After Li Zhen found out about the incident, there were a total of 130 officials and businessmen who committed the crime. Li Zhen did not spare any of them, and all of them were sentenced to death. At that time, blood flowed almost half the street. They didn't dare to go out at night for more than three months.

After this incident, the entire Lingnan officialdom was cleared up, and the officials also understood Li Zhen's bottom line. After that, even if there were officials who were corrupt, they would never dare to tamper with people's livelihood... But now it seems that people's greed Sure enough, it is infinite, how long has it been?How could anyone dare to take such a risk?

It seems that his own knife is not strong enough - a murderous intent flashed in Li Zhen's eyes, just to take this opportunity, let's clean Lingnan again before leaving...

"Your Highness, please applaud the fury of thunder. There may be some misunderstanding." Li Jingye looked at Cheng Chuliang and stood up to persuade him: "We still need to investigate this matter in detail. If it is true Forget it, Your Highness can't punish you too much, but if you find out that you have wronged a good person in the end, it will not only lead to wrongful convictions, but your Highness will also lose face."

"What do you mean, little boy?" Cheng Chuliang stared: "You mean that I, Cheng, are framing others? Not to mention why I framed others, just say that our little Cheng's character is that kind of People who arrange right and wrong behind their backs and frame others?"

Li Jingye said slowly: "Hmph, that's not necessarily the case, you know the face but you don't know the heart."

"You want to fight, I..."

Cheng Chuliang was furious, and raised his hand to punch him.

"enough."

Li Zhen yelled loudly, stopped the two of them, and said just now: "Of course I believe Cheng Chuliang's character, but what Li Jingye said is not wrong, and this matter still needs to be investigated in detail—in this way, Wei Shuyu, you Go and call the governor of Quanzhou to this palace."

"Yes." Wei Shuyu replied, turned and left.

Within a quarter of an hour, I saw a group of people rushing over in front of me. The leader was about thirty, with a square face and high nose, and a handsome appearance. He didn't look like the kind of corrupt villain—but what Li Jingye said That's right, knowing people, knowing their faces, not knowing their hearts, Li Zhen has been in the Tang court for so many years, and she has already passed the age of knowing people by face, not to mention that there are few people in history who are rich and jaded.I just don't know whether the person in front of me is really a good person or a hypocrite.

"My minister Li Xuan, the governor of Quanzhou, has seen His Highness the Crown Prince. When His Highness comes to Quanzhou, why don't you know how to greet him, and I can arrange to greet you." The handsome man is Li Xuan, who greeted Li Zhen very familiarly, Judging by his calm demeanor and his lack of guilt at all, either his psychological quality is excellent, or his personality really has nothing to do with this matter.

Looking at his posture, most of the doubts in Li Zhen's heart disappeared: "My cousin's favorite brother has received it, but this time I came to Quanzhou just passing by and didn't plan to stay for a long time, so I didn't tell my cousin."

Li Xuan was indeed Li Zhen's cousin. His father was Li Yuanze, king of Pengsi, and he himself was named king of Nanchang and governor of Quanzhou.It's just that according to the unwritten rules of the imperial court, he should have been the governor from afar, and the real power is actually in the hands of Chang Shi.However, since Li Zhen took control of Lingnan, this unwritten rule has been completely abolished. Some royal children have followed Li Zhen's example and went to the fiefdom to serve - of course, governing a place is not just a house, and it is not that simple to obtain this qualification Yes, at least it must pass the emperor's test before it can be recognized.

And this Li Xuan was approved by Li Shimin, and after coming to Lingnan, he was assessed by Li Zhen. He felt that he was barely qualified for the post of governor, so he was sent to Quanzhou.Speaking of which, Li Xuan's arrival in Lingnan was actually less than a year old. To be honest, Li Zhen didn't think he could control the situation in Quanzhou so quickly. What's more, Li Xuan's character was simple and honest, his status was lofty, and his family didn't lack this little money. Even Li Zhen felt that his suspicion would not be too great.

"Hehe, His Royal Highness, this is your fault. Whether you are passing by or staying in, you have come to my site, but you didn't say hello to me. Isn't this contemptuous of people? Okay, okay, let's not say these words, I will not pursue it anymore, I have already booked a banquet at the best restaurant before I come, Your Highness, you must give me this face." Li Xuan does not have mind reading skills, nor can she guess what Li Zhen is thinking at this time , but before he came, he already had a rough understanding of the situation from his own population. Although he didn't know the purpose of Li Zhen's visit, but based on what he knew, he could almost understand the purpose of Li Zhen's call for him to come.

But this matter really has nothing to do with him, at most he is responsible for lax supervision, and he also has his own plans, so he simply leads the topic to the main topic.

"There is no rush for the banquet. I didn't ask my cousin to welcome me. Let's deal with the matter here first." Li Zhen saw Li Xuan's careful thinking, but she didn't care. Things had to be resolved anyway, and being able to help Li Xuan a favor on the way to solve the matter was not a big deal.

Li Xuan patted her chest and assured: "I don't know what His Highness is talking about, if I can help you, I will definitely refuse."

"My question is very simple. Cousin, you can definitely answer it." Li Zhen pointed to the construction site in front: "According to what I know, there shouldn't be any problems with this road, right? Half a year ago, I went from this road." I walked on the road, but I am very satisfied, but what is the reason that caused you to destroy this road and rebuild it?"

"This..." Li Xuan showed a wry smile: "If your Highness asks about other things, I can still answer them, but I really don't know about this—the Wurong County under Quanzhou ruled half a month ago. The earthquake caused heavy losses to the people, I have been directing disaster relief in Wurong for half a month, and I just returned to Quanzhou City yesterday, I haven't had time to understand what happened in the city recently."

"Earthquake? Why didn't I know about it?" Li Zhen frowned even more. Why didn't anyone know about such a big thing?

Li Jingye, who was behind him, reminded in a low voice: "Ah...Your Highness, you forgot that you have been on vacation for half a month. We did receive news about the Quanzhou earthquake, but because the scope was too small, plus The rescue was timely, the loss was not serious, and it was not considered an emergency, so I did not tell you immediately."

"Eh..." Li Zhen was ashamed, he forgot about this.

"Ahem, let's talk about the road." Changing the topic as if nothing had happened, Li Zhen asked again: "Since my cousin doesn't know, who is responsible for this matter?"