Chapter 897: Sweeping the Courtyard With two people and four good horses, the return trip was much faster than when they came. Fang Jie and Xiang Qingniu basically camped in the wild, fearing that the white lion would scare the people along the way. Although everyone knows that Duke Zhen Guo has a white lion mount, who would believe that Duke Zhen Guo would travel without a bodyguard? When passing by a small county town, Fang Jie stopped and took a look at the white lion Hun Chao: "Now that the dry food has run out, I'm going to the city to buy some. You stay nearby and don't go far, and don't go into the city." White Lion I have long been used to it, so I twisted my body and ran away. When Fang Jie and Xiang Qingniu arrived at the edge of the county town, they were stopped by the officers and soldiers guarding the gate. The leader was a man who looked to be in his thirties. He was wearing a black flag military uniform very casually. Because of the hot weather, he didn't wear a leather helmet. When they saw Fang Jie and the others approaching, their long eyes kept darting over the mounts of Fang Jie and Xiang Qingniu. "Stop." He came over and stopped at the city gate: "Bring out the road. Wherever you are, go wherever you are." Fang explained, "Come from Xinyang City and go to Zhuque County." "Are you from Xinyang?" Shi Changjie Lu Yin, who was handed over by Fang Jie, looked at it casually and suddenly waved his hand: "Take them two!" A dozen officers and soldiers guarding the city gate immediately gathered around, drew out their horizontal swords and stared at Fang Jie and them eagerly. "There is a war going on over there in Xinyang City. I suspect that you two are spies sent by the enemy. The sign on your road sign says you are a businessman, but you don't have any goods with you, and you are riding a war horse!" It's so cold! He sneered and said, "Get off your horse and follow me to the Yamen!" Xiang Qingniu was a little annoyed. Just as he was about to speak, Fang Jie waved his hand, took off a sign from his waist and threw it over: "The road guide I just gave you. It was specially issued to avoid trouble. This is my belt." The chief took it and looked at it. He saw a few words engraved in seal script. He didn't recognize it: "You are so brave to admit this. They are forged! Come here, take them down, and send the horses to the Louzhi County Office No, they are sent to the county government for safekeeping. This is evidence!" Fang Jie's expression changed: "Look! Don¡¯t you understand my brand?¡± The chief casually threw the brand with the words ¡°Xiao Riding School¡± to one of his subordinates: ¡°I don¡¯t care what brand you have. Now I suspect you are a spy. Just follow it honestly.¡± Get off the horse, or I'll let you taste the whip in my uncle's hand. Seeing as you're fair and fair, I guess you're not doing anything serious." Xiang Qingniu's eyes narrowed slightly, but Fang Jie took his time. Shaked his head. He jumped off the horse and walked slowly towards the city gate. Xiang Qingniu didn't know what Fang Jie was going to do, so he dismounted and walked inside. "This man is really unreasonable." Na Shichang spat behind you: "Damn it, are you really stupid or fake?" A soldier came over and poked Fang Jie: "You are this guy You are really unworthy. Do you have any money with you? If you do, take it out and be filial. If you have money, who cares where you come from? Why don't you choose to enter the Yamen despite such a bright road? Let me tell you, when you enter the yamen, no matter whether you are really wronged or falsely accused, you have to shed a layer of skin before being punished by Lou Zhixian. " "Lou Zhixian?" Fang Jie couldn't help but ask: "Who is this Lou Zhixian? "When did you take office?" "Pinggu County has always been occupied by Lou Zhixian. You are an outsider and don't know. Our Lou Zhixian is a great person. When Luo Yao came, even the governor of Huangyang Road was forced to do so. He fell to his death while jumping over the city, but our Lou Zhixian lived well. Later, when our Zhen Guogong arrived at Huangyang Road, Lou Zhixian was still Lou Zhixian. I don¡¯t need to say more. It¡¯s better to be smarter than anything else.¡± "Oh" Fang Jie nodded: "I don't have any money. I was in a hurry and didn't bring it with me. Why don't you take me to see your magistrate Lou who can't be defeated by anyone." "Damn it!" The soldier cursed: "If you don't eat the toast, you will be fined. When you get to the county government hall, I think it's your mouth or your spine that is tough. Even if they are both tough, they can't be tougher than the killing stick in our hands." Xiang Qingniu followed Fang Jie and glanced at the soldier with pity, too lazy to say anything. "What a good horse!" Behind Fang Jie and the others, the chief touched the neck of the war horse and praised: "These good horses will be sent to County Magistrate Lou in a while. Magistrate Lou has wanted some good horses for a long time. It¡¯s for hunting, but it¡¯s very difficult for us to find war horses far away from Emperor Gao. This time someone brings them, so don¡¯t give them up.¡± A soldier looked at the sign carefully and said, ¡°What if it¡¯s something?¡± Where is this big shot??The workmanship is exquisite, and it seems to have some origin. " "who cares! " Shi Chang made a gesture of wiping his neck: "What if it's someone with a background? It seemed that they had no companions, otherwise they would not have had to bring two horses each, and since they had no backup, whoever they were. If you die in prison, even if someone comes to investigate, everyone will say that they have never seen it, and they will find nothing. " "I heard that the Riding School under Duke Zhen is very good at handling cases. " "That's awesome! " Na Shichang cursed: "It's all just bragging. If you ask me to be the Duke of the country, I won't necessarily be hired by anyone! " County Government Prison Fang Jie looked around and couldn't help but sigh: "I originally thought that Huangyang Road, the land under my control, was the best place. After all, I have been operating here for several years. I didn't expect that it would still be here. With such a county magistrate and such soldiersthe gatekeeper is so domineering and arrogant, one can only imagine what kind of virtue that magistrate has. The people here must have suffered a lot and been wronged. " "Such a small matter, you can just deal with it later. Xiang Qingniu looked at the dirty cell and frowned: "Why do you have to come in and take a look yourself? Give it to Chen Xiaoru. I guarantee that all the eight generations of Lou County magistrates can find out this, let alone what bad things they have done." . " "I just want to see how bad the officials under me can be. " Fang Jie shook his head and said: "Anyway, it doesn't take more than an hour or two. I only want the people under my rule to live a relatively best life, so I specially ask people to carefully select officials when appointing them. This magistrate of Lou County was already an official here before Luo Yao came, and he is still an official here after a few years. If someone in the camp hadn't protected him, how could it not have been cleared out? Look at those soldiers wearing my black flag uniform! " Fang Jie's eyes flashed with murderous intent: "The name of the Black Flag Army will most likely be ruined in the hands of such a person. If I do ten things for the people, maybe the people will know how good I am. If these scum in black flag military uniforms do one bad thing, the people will remember me as bad! " Xiang Qingniu sighed and said: "Actually, you don't have to be so angry. Throughout the ages, in all dynasties, unless the emperor is too stupid to a certain extent, most of the decisions made by the people above are good for the people. In the event of a disaster, money should be allocated as needed. Send the army when it is time to send the army. But when it came to the lower levels of government, this good policy changed. Not even a penny of the money appropriated from above could reach the hands of the people. " "How to treat it? " He asked. Xiang Qingniu found a relatively clean place to sit down: "According to what I know, even when the Sui Dynasty was at its peak, there were a lot of local people's complaints. It was just that local officials were protecting each other for their own future. , the people have grievances and cannot repay them at all. " "There is no cure. Fang explained: "I once thought about how to manage the officials under me." Should we use strict laws to restrain them, or use large sums of money to maintain integrity. But these two methods do not cure the root cause. No matter how strict the laws are, they can't kill greed. Once they are relaxed a little, they will immediately spread like a plague. To maintain integrity? Give officials large sums of money and they will become even more greedy! " "Is there really no cure? " Xiang Qingniu asked. "No." Fang explained: "No one can guarantee that everyone under his command will be watched closely every day. The emperor has the world, and there are thousands of people in the Central Plains who have reached the seventh rank. Who can guarantee that all of them are Is he a good official? This kind of thing cannot be stopped as long as people's hearts are greedy. " "what to do? Xiang Qingniu asked. "Treat" Fang Jie said slowly: "Treat with all our efforts." If you treat it today and don¡¯t treat it tomorrow, and if you don¡¯t treat it the next generation, it will only become more rampant. If you can't cure the symptoms of the disease, you have to fight hard to cure it, and kill a group of people. " Xiang Qingniu was startled by the killing intent in Fang Jie's tone. He saw something ruthless and decisive in Fang Jie's eyes. "Throughout the ages this matter has really been unstoppable. " Xiang Qingniu took out the last bit of dry food from his arms, but gave up the idea of ??eating it because there was no water: "The county magistrate is bad. If the county magistrate is good, this will be easy to handle. If one county magistrate is bad, then ten out of ten county magistrates under his rule will be bad. If one governor is bad, then thousands of officials below will also be bad. " "Go back and ask Chen Xiaoru to separate a group of people from the Xiao Riding School" Fang explained: "Specially inspect the four directions and deal with each discovery. We also need to see another inspector from the Yamen, a person who keeps an eye on the Xiao Riding School and patrols the surrounding areas. If the person who caught the thief becomes a thief, the disaster will be even worse. " Xiang Qingniu nodded: "ActuallyBut your rule is too stable, the people live well, and they tolerate the corruption of officials. What the people can't stand the most is officials who are greedy and do nothing. " As expected by Fang Jie, the Lou County magistrate was not as stupid and idiotic as the chief at the city gate. He broke out in a cold sweat after seeing the sign, and immediately ran to the prison to personally apologize and let him go." , and kept stuffing the banknotes into Fang Jie's hand. Fang Jie looked at the denominations of the banknotes, which were quite tempting. A county magistrate from a small county frequently took out banknotes worth several thousand taels. He didn't feel bad, which shows how much he was greedy. Contrary to Xiang Qingniu's expectation, Fang Jie didn't fall out on the spot, but accepted the money with a smile, and soon became brothers with that Lou County Magistrate. The county magistrate gradually let go of his worries and had a pleasant conversation with Fang Jie. Xiang Qingniu suddenly felt a chill in his heart. Fang Jie, who was smiling brightly now, didn't know how much murderous thoughts he had in his heart. It took an hour for Fang Jie to find out who was hiding from Magistrate Lou and what his relationship was with him in Zhuque Mountain. Fang Jie even acted particularly uncomfortable before leaving. It felt like a late encounter. Magistrate Lou also felt that he had met a close friend, so he actually sent him ten miles away from the county seat and sent someone to prepare a lot of food for the journey. After leaving the county seat, Fang Jie whistled. Hun Chao then rushed over from a distance: "Ahead is An County. " Fang Jie looked back and said: "There are still many Xiaoqiu schools in An County handling cases involving the Buddha. Let's leave this matter to them for the time being. These are just small fish and shrimps, but there are a few big fish in Zhuque Mountain. This time when I go back, I need to clean the courtyard. "