When Liu Changan, the prefect of Lu'an, entered the room, Xu Qingyan had already stood up and stood behind Zhao Junchen. When he saw Liu Changan, he gave Liu Changan a fierce look.
Apparently, Liu Changan's sudden visit interrupted his conversation with Zhao Junchen, and Xu Qingyan was very dissatisfied with this.
Regarding Xu Qingyan's rudeness, Liu Changan was not dissatisfied at all. At least he did not show his dissatisfaction on his face. Instead, he smiled flatteringly at Xu Qingyan, then knelt in front of Zhao Junchen and said respectfully: "I have seen you, sir.
After getting up, the official was worried about the master's health, so he rushed over. Now that he saw that the master was in good health and full of energy, the official was relieved. It was just that he came unexpectedly. If I disturbed the master, please forgive me.
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Zhao Junchen said with a smile: "How could it be? Mr. Liu cares about me. If I blame Mr. Liu instead, wouldn't it be repaying kindness with evil? Get up quickly. This is not a government office. We don't need so many rules. Sit down and talk."
After a night of buffering and preparation, although Zhao Junchen was still a little uncomfortable with his new identity, he was already presentable in official circles.
After Liu Changan was polite, he finally sat down in front of Zhao Junchen, and said with a sincere smile: "This official is confused. Although my lord, you are still young, you are morally upright and magnanimous. This is
It is recognized by everyone in the world, and even His Majesty has praised me, that I will not blame my subordinates for trivial matters, and because of this, I have always been honored to serve under your Majesty's command."
Hearing what Liu Changan said, Zhao Junchen was speechless for a while. If he hadn't already known a little bit about Liu Changan's character, Zhao Junchen would have thought that these words were mocking him.
The way of thick blackness has been brought to its extreme in the officialdom. Zhao Junchen still needs to slowly adapt to this.
However, Zhao Junchen also knew that the main purpose of Liu Changan's words was to test Zhao Junchen's mind and see if Zhao Junchen would still be worried about yesterday's attack after receiving one hundred thousand taels of silver.
The incident caused anger to the officials of Lu'an Prefecture.
Therefore, Zhao Junchen said: "I have always been informal. If I pay too much attention to those small things, how can I accomplish big things? So, some small things will pass when they pass, so you don't need to pay too much attention to them."
Hearing what Zhao Junchen said, a look of joy flashed across Liu Changan's face, he nodded repeatedly and said, "My lord, what I said is that when looking forward, you should focus on major matters. Your lord is free and easy-going, broad-minded, and the lower officials admire him endlessly.
Nowadays, the biggest thing in Lu'an Mansion is to provide relief to the victims of the locust plague. It is the safest thing for you to personally take charge of this matter, and everyone in Lu'an Mansion will definitely follow your leadership."
Zhao Junchen smiled and nodded, but did not answer the conversation. He was just thinking about how he should deal with these Lu'an officials headed by Liu Changan.
Zhao Junchen has made up his mind to use this time of presiding over the disaster relief in Lu'an Mansion as an opportunity to slowly improve his reputation among the government and the public and reverse the unfavorable situation. However, as Xu Qingyan said before, I am afraid that there are no good people among the officials in Lu'an Mansion.
When they do things, they must get some benefits, otherwise not only will they get twice the result with half the effort, but they will also arouse the resentment of these people, which is not conducive to Zhao Junchen's future plans.
As for how to satisfy the greed of these officials while relieving the victims, Zhao Junchen thought carefully and already had a rough plan. However, the plan was based on assumptions after all. He did not understand the disaster situation in Lu'an Prefecture. Whether the plan was
In reality, Zhao Junchen has not yet thought about how to convince the officials of Lu'an Prefecture to agree.
Thinking like this, Zhao Junchen felt that he should go to the private sector to actually investigate.
On the other side, Liu Changan saw that Zhao Junchen was silent, but he misunderstood Zhao Junchen's thoughts and said quickly: "However, although you are broad-minded, my lord, the unscrupulous people who attacked you are really hateful. I think this, but I can't
To let them off easily and attack the imperial envoys is a crime of treason. To confiscate their homes and kill them is an unpardonable crime!!"
Zhao Junchen was stunned for a moment, and then he remembered the people who attacked him. After hesitating for a moment, he said: "Those... well... unruly people, just lock them up first, and don't torture them. The Japanese officials will personally do it in a few days."
During the interrogation, the people are simple and honest, and they rashly attack this official. Maybe they were deceived by others, and I'm afraid it's not that simple."
Liu Changan was stunned for a moment, then nodded again and said: "Your Excellency is wise and what you said is absolutely correct, but the lower official was negligent."
Zhao Junchen nodded with a smile and said: "As long as you understand, speaking of it, the court's disaster relief food and grass are estimated to arrive in the next two days, but I am in charge of disaster relief matters and have not yet paid attention to the current disaster situation in Lu'an Mansion.
I understand that although I wanted to inspect and visit yesterday, I was attacked again. However, the official business of the court cannot be delayed. If Mr. Liu has nothing to do today, please accompany me to continue to inspect the disaster."
"Your Excellency is devoted to the country, and you are truly a role model for all officials in the imperial court." Liu Chang'an flattered one after another. After flattering him, he assured: "Your Majesty will be inspecting the disaster area today, so please rest assured that your subordinates will be well prepared.
Something like the thugs attacking you yesterday will never happen again."
Zhao Junchen said: "This is the best, but today's inspection is different from yesterday. You and I can just wear ordinary people's clothes and visit privately incognito. There is no need to make a big fanfare, and there is no need to alarm other officials."
After hearing what Zhao Junchen said, Liu Changan hesitated for a moment, then nodded, and then said goodbye to Zhao Junchen and went to change clothes.
Looking at Liu Changan's leaving figure, Zhao Junchen suddenly found an advantage in this man, that is, he had no principles. Zhao Junchen would do whatever he said without any objection.
Compared to Liu Changan, Xu Qingyan is far behind in this regard.
Sure enough, as soon as Liu Changan left, Xu Qingyan said to Zhao Junchen impatiently: "Master, you were attacked by thugs yesterday, why do you have to visit incognito in private today? It's too dangerous. Let me tell you, inspecting the disaster is just for other people.
People can see it, even if you want to go, you can’t be incognito.”
Zhao Junchen shook his head and said: "Don't worry, I think Liu Changan is doing things safely. Even if he is in plain clothes, he will definitely arrange for guards to accompany him secretly. What's more, once I take off my official uniform and hat, no one will recognize me, just like yesterday
On the contrary, nothing like this will happen, and there will be no danger. Don’t worry, I really want to help the victims this time. How can I do it if I don’t understand the situation?”
Seeing that Zhao Junchen had made up his mind, Xu Qingyan had no choice but to find an ordinary piece of clothing that was not very conspicuous and helped Zhao Junchen put it on.
On the other side, while Zhao Junchen was getting dressed, he told Xu Qingyan: "Also, you have to remember to be more polite to those officials, big and small. After all, they are officials of the Ming Dynasty, and most of them are corrupt. As the saying goes, it is better to offend.
A gentleman should not offend villains. If you do this, you will offend a group of villains in one go. If something happens to us in the future, not only will we have no one to help us, but we will also be tricked, and we won’t even have a chance to stand up. There will be no place to buy regret medicine.
Go. In the future, we must not only improve our reputation among the government and the opposition, but also try to make friends with these cliques and allies. Even if we cannot make friends, we must not offend them unless it is absolutely necessary."
After a pause, Zhao Junchen continued: "In just these two days, I am going to host a banquet for the officials of Lu'an Mansion. You were too arrogant to them yesterday. You must apologize to them in person when the time comes. You cannot neglect it. Do you understand?"
Xu Qingyan nodded and said in a low voice: "I understand."
Zhao Junchen sighed and said: "Don't be dissatisfied. You must pay attention to these things in the future. If you don't worry about the long term, you will have immediate worries. It is better to have one more friend than one enemy."
…
After Zhao Junchen came to Lu'an Mansion, Liu Changan vacated his own house for Zhao Junchen to live temporarily, and instead he took his whole family to live in another courtyard.
Because of this, when Zhao Junchen finished packing, Liu Changan had already changed into a butler's attire and was waiting outside the door.
The three of them took a few servants and guards dressed as ordinary people. After leaving Liu Changan's house, they took a carriage and headed out of the city.
Along the way, Zhao Junchen learned a lot about the local disaster relief situation from Liu Changan.
As the saying goes, when drought comes, locusts swarm. Since the beginning of this year, there have been few rains near Lu'an Prefecture. The local irrigation conditions were quite good. Although the harvest was not good, at least we could survive.
However, not long after, it was just the beginning of autumn, and locusts appeared. At first, there were only one or two occasionally seen, but within a few days, they became overwhelming. The people of Lu'an Prefecture had to work hard for a year to farm.
The little grain was eaten away by locusts within a few days. By that time, the disaster was already obvious.
In fact, just after locusts were discovered in Lu'an Mansion, Liu Changan had already asked the court for relief food and grass. Even so, it was too late.
Now, it is even more serious. The locust plague is intensifying. It not only ravages Lu'an Prefecture, but also begins to spread to Taiyuan, Hedong and other places.
Maybe, in a while, the government's relief food funds will be distributed to Taiyuan, Hedong and other places.
After hearing Liu Changan's introduction, Zhao Junchen looked serious, but he did not expect that the locust plague was much more serious than he thought. He thought it was just a local disaster in Lu'an Prefecture, but now it has a tendency to spread to the entire Shanxi Province.
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After pondering for a moment, Zhao Junchen asked: "Is this locust plague really unstoppable? If more people can be sent to cull the locusts, the locust plague will spread more slowly this time. The people have been cultivating food for a year.
You can take back some of it."
After hearing what Zhao Junchen said, not only Liu Changan, but also Xu Qingyan looked at Zhao Junchen with a look of horror, as if Zhao Junchen had said something treasonous.
Then, their explanation made Zhao Junchen even more stunned.