In Bao Wenjie's eyes, Zhao Junchen was the biggest corrupt official in the imperial court. Any corruption case involving the Ministry of Revenue and the National Treasury must be related to Zhao Junchen.
This time, the court's disaster relief money and food disappeared, and Bao Wenjie naturally doubted Zhao Junchen's stance.
So, after seeing that Zhao Junchen was in a good mood, Bao Wenjie hesitated for a moment, but then started talking about business. Wanting to test Zhao Junchen's true thoughts, he asked: "Sir Zhao, what about the disappearance of relief money and food from several provinces in the northwest?
, what do you think? It’s really strange that so much food suddenly disappeared.”
Zhao Junchen sighed softly and said: "What else could be going on? Of course, some officials secretly intercepted it... 70% of the disaster relief money and food were missing. No matter how much we take this kind of thing seriously, we can't take it too seriously.
However, the imperial court did not know the news until now. It did not receive the news through the formal channels of the local government. Instead, it was notified privately by several conscientious local officials. This was obviously deliberately concealed by the governors of the provinces, so Li Xun, the governor of Shanxi, and Shaanxi
Governor Zhang Shengde and Gansu Governor Wu Min are probably closely related..."
Bao Wenjie's eyes were fixed on the change in Zhao Junchen's expression, and he asked again: "If this matter is indeed related to the governors of the provinces, what are you going to do, Mr. Zhao?"
Zhao Junchen glanced at Bao Wenjie from the corner of his eyes and asked: "What exactly does Mr. Bao want to know?"
Bao Wenjie said with a serious expression: "I just want to know whether Mr. Zhao will severely punish these corrupt officials? The nature of this matter is extremely serious. In my opinion, not strictly investigating is not enough to deter the temple.
Lack of strict investigation is not enough to reverse the administration of officials. We must not let these corrupt officials go easily, otherwise we will only disappoint the people and think that the government is protected by officials and everyone is unclean. What do you think, Mr. Zhao?"
Hearing Bao Wenjie's hint, Zhao Junchen's expression became more serious, but he turned to Hong Gaogong and ordered: "Hong Qianhu, I am thirsty. Please find some water for me to quench my thirst."
Zhao Junchen said this because he obviously didn't want Hong Gaogong to hear the subsequent conversation between him and Bao Wenjie, so he found a reason to send Hong Gaogong away.
Hong Gaogong also understood Zhao Junchen's hint, but he also wanted to know Zhao Junchen's true thoughts on this matter, which was related to how much the Jin Yiwei people would gain from this trip, so Hong Gaogong pretended not to understand.
, directly untied the water bag from his waist and handed it to Zhao Junchen, and said with a smile: "Master Zhao, I just carry the water bag in my humble position, there is no need to go looking for it."
Zhao Junchen frowned, first reached out to take the water bag, and then let go and let the water bag fall to the horse's feet.
At this time, everyone was riding their horses forward, not very fast, but not very slow either.
After the water bag fell to the ground, it immediately fell behind several people, and was trampled by the following people. The water bag made of fine calfskin just fell into pieces.
Then, Zhao Junchen's voice became slightly colder and he said again: "I missed it because I didn't catch it properly. I'd better trouble Hong Qianhu to make a special trip."
In this way, Hong Gaogong was unhappy with Zhao Junchen, but he did not dare to get angry with Zhao Junchen. He just laughed and rode away.
After Hong Gaogong left, Zhao Junchen finally told Bao Wenjie some real thoughts: "Mr. Bao, I can't answer your question accurately. After all, I don't know the detailed situation in the northwest provinces. I just
Can I say... If only a few officials are involved in this case, then I will definitely punish them severely in order to scare others. But if there are too many officials involved and the scope of the case is too wide, then I will have no choice but not to punish everyone.
, let most of the officials involved in the case go, and only punish the culprit!"
After hearing what Zhao Junchen said, Bao Wenjie's expression suddenly changed. He felt that his worries had been realized. Zhao Junchen planned to protect corrupt officials again!
Therefore, Bao Wenjie's tone suddenly became stiff and he said: "Mr. Zhao, I dare not agree with this. If most of the corrupt officials involved in the case are easily let go just because of the words 'the law does not punish everyone', who else will do it in the future?"
Do you value the laws and disciplines of the imperial court? When the corrupt officials in the imperial court see this situation, won’t they imitate it and collude together to take bribes?”
Zhao Junchen nodded and agreed with Bao Wenjie's point of view, sighing: "This is also a helpless matter. Although there will be some bad effects, we can only take it one step at a time."
Seeing that Zhao Junchen had no intention of changing his mind, Bao Wenjie's tone became stiffer and he said: "Sir Zhao, as the deputy imperial envoy, I also have the responsibility of supervision. If Mr. Zhao sheltered the corrupt official involved in the case, I'm afraid I will have no choice but to do it."
Report to Your Majesty."
Zhao Junchen sighed again and said: "If things really develop to this point and Mr. Bao wants to report to Your Majesty, I will not stop him... But I want to ask Mr. Bao, why are we going to the northwest provinces this time?
What?"
Bao Wenjie was slightly stunned and replied: "Of course we need to find out the truth about the disappearance of the disaster relief money and food, and then strictly investigate those officials who embezzled and withheld the court's disaster relief money and food, so as to correct the court's principles!"
Zhao Junchen shook his head and said: "Wrong, wrong!"
"Wrong?" Bao Wenjie was stunned again.
Zhao Junchen explained: "The purpose of our trip to the northwest provinces this time is to stabilize the situation in the northwest, to smoothly distribute disaster relief food and grass to the people affected by the disaster, and to prevent the victims from causing chaos... This is the most important thing. As for punishing corrupt officials,
Things like this are just incidental things, everything must be done with relief to the victims as the priority!"
After hearing what Zhao Junchen said, Bao Wenjie thought for a moment, and then had to admit that Zhao Junchen's statement was correct.
Among Qingliu officials, Bao Wenjie has always paid the most attention to reality, but he still has some shortcomings of Qingliu officials, that is, he only pays attention to impeachment and exposure, but often ignores solutions to real situations.
After seeing that Bao Wenjie did not refute his statement, Zhao Junchen asked: "So, in Mr. Bao's view, if this matter involves a large number of local officials, and you and I are punishing them severely and not letting any of them go,
What will the common people think when they see that most of the officials in the imperial court are corrupt? Will it help stabilize the situation in the northwest?
The most important thing is, if we punish most of the local officials in the northwest provinces in one go, where will we find replacements for them in a short period of time? If we cannot find replacements, there will be a large number of vacancies in official positions in various states and counties.
, and who is going to govern the people and distribute relief food to the victims? If there are no officials to distribute relief food, the relief food cannot be distributed to the people in time, and a civil unrest may occur. Then the two of us will be punished.
So what if there are more corrupt officials? Isn’t it putting the cart before the horse? Especially at this sensitive time when the fire is sifting into the invaders, if local officials are imprisoned by us one after another, who will be able to organize the people to resist the Mongolian Tatars?”
Hearing Zhao Junchen's successive questions, Bao Wenjie was speechless.
Before that, he was only thinking about severely punishing corrupt officials, but he never considered these issues.
After seeing Bao Wenjie's position gradually wavering, Zhao Junchen said again: "So, for the sake of the overall interests of the court and the safety of the people, if too many officials are involved in this matter, we can only severely punish the culprit and kill the chicken to scare the monkeys.
The officials involved in the case were let off lightly and allowed to serve their crimes, because we have no candidates to replace them! This is what I really think! Of course, if Mr. Bao is still dissatisfied, I will not stop you from reporting to His Majesty, but
...Your Majesty, I’m afraid he has the same idea as me.”
As Zhao Junchen repeated his point of view again, Bao Wenjie was still speechless and silent as before.
Bao Wenjie always felt that something was wrong with Zhao Junchen's views and was not convinced, but he could not find a reason to refute Zhao Junchen.
Seeing Bao Wenjie's appearance, Zhao Junchen didn't say anything more, he just closed his mouth and rode forward quietly.
Many things seem unreasonable, but due to objective conditions, people can only passively accept them. For an idealist like Bao Wenjie, this kind of thing is indeed cruel, but it can only let him think about it.
Pass.
On the other side, after seeing the conversation between Zhao Junchen and Bao Wenjie, Hong Gaogong quickly rode forward again and put a new kettle on Zhao Junchen.
However, at this time, Huailai County was already in sight.
*
A large number of Jin Yiwei appeared in Huailai County, which naturally frightened all the officials and people in Huailai County.
The magistrate of Huailai County even hurried over to ask about the situation. After discovering Zhao Junchen's identity, the magistrate of Huailai County was even more frightened, fearing he would be neglected.
Under the sincere reception of the Huailai County Magistrate, everyone rested in Huailai County for an hour, and then immediately left Huailai County and continued westward.
In the next two days, the group passed through Zhulu County, Xuanhua County, and Yangyuan County, and then finally left Zhili and entered Shanxi.
The first stop entering Shanxi was a place that Zhao Junchen was very familiar with. It was Lu'an Mansion, where Zhao Junchen fought off the locust plague!
It was only two or three days' journey, and the scene everyone saw when they were on their way was already very different.
When we were in Zhili, the crop fields on both sides of the road were still prosperous, and the people were calm when harvesting the crops. But the further west we went, the more obvious the drought became. After we arrived in Shanxi, the traces of the drought became more obvious.
Most of the fields as far as the eye could see were sparse and the crops were low, and most of the people were looking sad and sighing, obviously worried about the insufficient autumn grain this year.
This is still the southwestern part of Shanxi, which is an area where the disaster is relatively mild. I am afraid that the situation in other places will be even worse.
After seeing this situation, Zhao Junchen's heart became heavy.