Hearing Lin Tailai say "it's too late", Li Shida felt extremely bad in his heart.
Won't those thousands of hungry families who don't know the truth and have been deceived already start taking action to attack the government office?
Anyone who has experience in local governance knows that the thousands of poor households Lin Tailai mentioned may not be an exaggeration.
Under the current system of the Ming Dynasty, both silver and rice can be regarded as hard fiscal currencies. Ten thousand shi of rice or five thousand taels of silver is indeed enough for thousands of poor households to survive the two months of spring famine without starving to death.
Thinking of this, Li Shida hurriedly asked Lin Tailai: "Have those poor people gathered to cause trouble?"
Lin Daguan replied with certainty: "It's unnecessary."
In the past, Li Shida might have been dubious about this.
But after witnessing with my own eyes the scene where the rioters in Suzhou City even dared to beat the governor, I no longer dared to doubt the ability of the "rioters" to act.
Not to mention that these are "starving people" who have no food, so anything is possible!
The meaning of "unnecessary to exist" generally means that it must exist!
"Get up the sedan quickly! Go back to the government office!" Li Qinqi shouted to the sedan bearer.
He, the imperial envoy, currently has hundreds of officers and soldiers mobilized around him as escorts, some from the Suzhou Guard and some from the Governor's Biao Camp.
Under his direct command, these hundreds of officers and soldiers might be able to block the mob and temporarily protect Magistrate Shi!
If the mob really succeeded in attacking and stripped Magistrate Shi naked and threw him into the street, then Magistrate Shi would have no shame in staying in Suzhou!
Before Li Qinqi could return to the sedan, the dirty old man with a broken leg sitting in the middle of the street held up his petition and shouted with a louder voice:
"Officials and officials protect each other! The common people are as lowly as grass! The imperial envoy just sits back and watches the common people starve to death and ignores them!"
Damn it! Li Shida turned around and glared at the dirty old man with a broken leg.
What kind of Suzhou-style common people have no respect for officials and are so skilled in moral kidnapping!
Then the hateful voice of the guard surnamed Lin floated into the ears of the imperial envoy:
"In broad daylight, with so many people watching, no matter what Qinchen Li thinks in his heart, he has to live up to his reputation, right?
Besides, your mission is to investigate the prefect, and someone here has provided clues to the prefect. If you ignore it, you will be derelict in your duty."
Li Shida gritted his teeth and asked his entourage to step forward and accept the petition.
Previously, Li Shida felt that with his status as a second-rank official and an imperial envoy, no one in Suzhou City could force him to do anything.
For example, if you say that Magistrate Shi is not guilty, then he must be innocent.
But now I feel as if there are a pair of invisible hands controlling every move I make, making me, the imperial envoy, like a puppet on strings.
"Can you return to the government office now?" The imperial envoy held the petition and said to Guard Lin in a sarcastic tone.
Lin Tailai quickly directed the bearers to lift up the sedan chair, and asked the sergeant to clear the way in front, moving forward as fast as possible.
Outside the government office gate, everything was no different from usual.
There are people who are going in and out for business, there are people who are doing various small businesses, there are people who are watching government notices, and there are brokers or lawyers who are wandering back and forth.
But there are not even a few "rioters" who gather to make trouble, let alone thousands.
When Magistrate Shi heard that the imperial envoy had returned, he quickly came out to greet him in confusion.
The two people who had just separated and reunited looked at each other with big eyes and small eyes, and their eyes were a little blank.
Lin Daguan, on the other hand, stood nearby, looking at the sky, as if he was contemplating poetry.
"Can you avoid it?" Li Shida asked Lin Tailai unbearably.
With Lin Tailai standing next to you, how could he secretly exchange views with Magistrate Shi on the latest situation?
Official Lin looked back at the sky and asked: "Are you sure you want me to avoid you?"
Li Shida: ""
What does this sentence mean? What shady meaning does it hide?
Thinking back to when I arrived in Suzhou, every word I heard from Lin Tailai seemed to be full of profound meaning or meaning, like a riddle, and my brain's CPU was not burning enough!
Lin Daguan said again: "Don't think too much, this sentence has no special meaning. You guys stand here and don't move. I'll buy some oranges."
Li Qincha fell into deep thought again. What does it mean to buy oranges?
He knew that the Dongting Mountain of Taihu Lake in Suzhou was rich in oranges. This was the original accumulation of the Dongting merchant gang when they started business and became rich. But now is not the season for oranges to be on the market?
Li Qinchai was too engrossed in his thinking, and it wasn't until Magistrate Shi called him several times that he came back to his senses.
"Now the sword is hanging over your head!" Li Qinchen said quickly: "Under the instigation of thoughtful people, thousands of hungry people may blame you!"
Magistrate Shi, who had suffered many bad news today, almost broke his guard when he heard this latest development.
Xiao Hairui and Shi Qingtian embezzled 5,000 taels of silver, causing a shortage of grain in Wu County's agricultural warehouses, and thousands of poor people were unable to borrow grain to survive the spring famine? Which bastard wrote this script?
Magistrate Shi said angrily: "In order to repair the city wall, the government government transferred five thousand taels of official silver from the county. This is a normal government affair!
How could these ignorant people connect this matter with the shortage of food in the farmhouse?
Is it possible that a wealthy county like Wu County cannot operate if it lacks five thousand taels of silver, and is forced to occupy the farmers' warehouse to store grain?"
Li Qinchen said helplessly: "It's useless for you to talk about these truths. These stupid people only believe what they want to believe!"
So let’s face reality first! I will be stationed at the government office with my troops in the past two days to prevent the hungry people from causing chaos and directly impacting you!"
Magistrate Shi thought of the "suicidal" palm slave and the burned government account books, and said a little pessimistically: "If the stumbling blocks are not removed, all the plans will not be able to proceed."
I originally thought that I only needed to bypass Lin Tailai and do things directly. Now I discovered that as long as Lin Tailai deliberately wanted to block the way, he could not be avoided in Suzhou City.
The two of them made a simple calculation. Theoretically speaking, a lineup of a fourth-grade prefect, a third-grade governor, and a second-grade imperial minister is enough to get rid of a normal local bully. I have the advantage.
But when we put the theory into practice and put it into the actual situation we are currently facing, we find that it is simply not possible.
Anyone who has read koan novels knows that there are generally two ways for upright officials to get rid of local bullies.
One is to create a situation where the bully is "alone", and while the bully is careless, use one move to capture the thief first.
The other is to go straight to Huanglong and directly attack the bully's lair, usually with the cooperation of an insider who understands righteousness and abandons darkness to light.
However, if the role of the bully is replaced by Lin Tailai, neither of these two methods will be effective.
For example, with the first tactic of capturing the thief first, can Lin Tailai be captured even if he is alone?
Could it be that the famous Iron Fist and Golden Whip in the south of the Yangtze River and the number one martial arts champion in the world are just show-offs?
If there are too many people dispatched, it will be easier to be exposed in advance. If there are fewer people, there won't be enough for Lin Tai to fight.
As for the second tactic of attacking Huanglong, the biggest question is, where is the so-called lair of the Lin Group?
Traditional bullies have a base as their lair, such as a heavily guarded manor, a large mansion with high walls and deep courtyards, a small island in the water, or a camp in the mountains.
Most of the men and wealth are concentrated in the lair. As long as the lair is destroyed, the bully's power will basically disappear.
But when it comes to the lairs of the Lin Group, it seems that they are all located in a radius of thirty or forty miles from the west wall of Suzhou City to Taihu Lake.
Moreover, Lin Tailai's leaders and associates are not the kind of simple thugs who will only concentrate in the lair and wait to be wiped out by the force of justice.
They often hide among the people and hold various social and economic organizational identities, such as tax collectors at the gate, tax collectors, engineering team leaders, industrial park supervisors, farmers' warehouse custodians, boat owners and fishermen, etc.
The Lin Group has not concentrated its gold and silver treasures to be a miser, but has been making large-scale investments. The wealth is very dispersed, and no matter which point it attacks, it is not a big deal.
So Li Qinchai and Shi Zhifu worked together for a long time, but the result was that the old bureaucrat encountered a new bully and was at a loss to do anything.
According to their calculations, the only feasible plan to destroy the Lin Group in one fell swoop is to persuade the emperor to directly issue an edict to label the number one martial artist in the Ming Dynasty as a traitor, eliminate all interference from the court, and mobilize at least five thousand capable warriors from other places.
The officers and soldiers, in a counterinsurgency posture, carried out a comprehensive sweep within twenty miles of both sides of the Xujiang River.
But this is obviously impossible and beyond their capabilities.
Or just wait for decades, maybe the Lin Group will fall into internal strife and fall apart on its own.
After analyzing the situation between the enemy and ourselves, it was already dark, and the two of them had no choice but to rest separately.
By the next day, the two of them had their own division of labor. Magistrate Shi was responsible for conducting internal inspections in the government office.
Li Qinchao personally commanded the army and mobilized many troops to stand guard at the government office to prevent stupid and hungry people who did not know the truth from attacking the government office.
When nothing happened for the time being, Li Shida was sitting in the back hall of the government office drinking tea, thinking about how to carry out the next step of the work.
Lin Qianhu sat at the door dutifully, fulfilling his duty of protecting the imperial envoy.
Suddenly, someone stumbled to the door, shouting and interrupting the imperial envoy's train of thought.
"Help! The Inspector-General asks for help!" The man shouted: "I don't know how many rioters claimed that there was no food in the spring famine and rushed into the Inspector-General's Office! Governor Li, who was recovering from his injuries, was caught off guard and sent someone to ask for help!"
Li Shida: ""
He dispatched troops and generals to defend the government office to the death, but the rebels stormed the governor's office?
This horse-riding man makes me, the imperial envoy, look like a fool!
Does this horse-riding person have any respect for those who work conscientiously to prevent chaos and actively make a difference in setting up defenses?
Also, Governor Li is already miserable enough, so why go after him?
Isn't it Magistrate Shi who is rumored to be the one who caused the poor to run out of food due to corruption?
Lin Qianhu, who was sitting at the door and doing his duty as a guard, sighed and said:
"I have long said that for matters such as protecting the imperial ministers, our Suzhou Guards and Army are enough.
As the saying goes, good advice is harsh to the ears, but Li Qin sent you and refused to listen, insisting on redeploying the officers and soldiers from Governor Biao Camp.
Do you think that the two groups of people around you can check and balance each other, which is in line with the power rules of the superior to achieve balance, and can provide comprehensive strategies?
Dogmatism is undesirable. The tactics and tactics textbooks in street stall literature are harmful to people.
This gives you peace of mind, but it leaves the governor and procuratorate empty of defenses.
Being attacked by rioters again, there is nothing we can do about it.”
"Get lost!" A teacup filled with the anger of the Imperial Envoy suddenly flew straight towards Lin Qianhu.
Lin Qianhu, whose words were offensive to his ears, was forced to shut up and ducked away from the teacup.