Li Ze walked out from behind his big case, took a cup of tea from Li Peng's hand, and handed it to a middle-aged official with slightly gray temples.

The official was obviously a little startled, and was stunned for a moment, then he bent down deeply, put his hands on the top, and took the cup of tea from Li Ze's hand.

"It's hard work, sit down!" Li Ze patted the official's shoulder and said gently.

This official's name is Wu Jin, and he has been waiting for the second deputy in Cangzhou, and this time, Feng was transferred to Beijing.

The reason why Li Ze treats Wu Jin so well is entirely because of his person.

Wu Jin, whose family was originally a small wealth, can also be regarded as a middle-class family, but after a conflict with the local gentry, the family was ruined, and Wu Jin, who had been admitted to Xiucai, has since been completely reduced to extreme poverty. This person was the first batch of people to join the Yixing Society, and unlike the most of the lowest-class people who were illiterate in the beginning, he had a certain amount of knowledge. So after entering the Yixing Society, he was the object of key training.

And he lived up to the high expectations of his boss, and his achievements were good, and he soon emerged and became a dazzling star in the Yixing Society.

If that's all there is, he can't afford Li Ze to personally toast him with a cup of tea, and Li Ze attaches great importance to this person's honesty and integrity.

This may have something to do with Wu Jin's early experiences.

Cangzhou, where Wu Jin is located, is one of the richest areas in the Ming Dynasty today, because of the existence of Haixing Port, the prosperity of Cangzhou people is not much more than that of Wuyi.

But Wu Jin is in Cangzhou, in a high position, but he has a clean breeze on his sleeves.

This person is truly incorruptible, and takes nothing but his own money and the benefits to which he is entitled. He did not buy a shop, did not invest in business, and was an official for many years, and the only time he bought property was to buy back his ancestral property, a total of 50 acres of land and a small yard.

In fact, this is not a property purchase, but more like an explanation to the deceased parents.

Not only in Cangzhou, but even in the entire Tang Dynasty official system, Wu Jin is a real outlier, an outlier that makes everyone look sideways and makes everyone afraid, and he is an official who even his boss respects and fears.

It should be said that the bureaucratic system under Li Ze's rule has achieved unprecedented achievements in terms of the level of honesty. Li Ze has a very low tolerance for corruption. If you catch one, you will punish one, you will not be merciful, you will not be soft, even Shen Congxing, who was the first to follow Li Ze in the past and belongs to Li Ze's confidant, after the incident, it is difficult to escape death, let alone others.

Therefore, the officials under Li Ze's command, the closer they are to Li Ze's people, the more strictly they control this point.

However, this does not prevent these officials from seeking more property for themselves through legal channels.

For example, buying a store and investing in various businesses.

Whether it was Li Anguo's subordinates back then, or many former Tang officials who defected to Li Ze later, they were all wealthy. After the land restriction order, these people withdrew almost all the land that exceeded the policy allow, and they invested the excess money in their hands into various businesses.

Li Ze acquiesced to this situation at that time.

Although the merchants were rich in the past, they have always been a class that has been discriminated against, and the addition of these people has effectively enhanced the status of this class, and the rise of the merchant class is of great value to Li Ze's strategic purpose of attacking the landlord class.

Moreover, at that time, Li Ze also needed to use the prosperity of commerce to ensure the financial income of his regime. While greatly reducing the burden on the peasants and winning the support of this class of people, Li Ze needed another class to make up for the loss of his wealth, so the merchant became the best choice.

Stabilizing agriculture, revitalizing business, and revitalizing industry are several core elements of Li Ze's policy.

However, such a policy also has a fatal weakness.

That is, collusion between officials and businessmen is almost impossible to avoid.

To put it mildly, they don't need to cheat to get a huge amount of resources easily. And now the major trading companies that are important to Datang are all backed by high-ranking officials of Datang.

Wu Jin hated this situation. He openly told Li Ze that if this situation continues for a long time, it will definitely cause fatal damage to Datang.

This excerpt made Wu Jin immediately become the opposite of almost all officials in the Tang Dynasty, making people look at him sideways. And Li Ze also pressed this excerpt down, and did not even let it enter the discussion process.

But Wu Jin's official career in Cangzhou also entered a great predicament.

Almost all the central departments wore another pair of glasses in the assessment and examination of Cangzhou, which made Cangzhou complain bitterly, obviously Cangzhou was among the best in all aspects, but in the end they always did not get the rewards and honors they deserved.

Under the suppression in the open and in the dark, the officials in Cangzhou complained about Wu Jinyi, and Hou Zhen had already complained to Li Ze several times.

Li Ze has no way to deal with these suppressions, you really have to call these officials to interrogate, and keep them able to give you a reasoned and well-founded scolding to make you speechless.

As long as you are doing things, where can you find faults?

If you really want to find your stubble, even if you do nine percent of the perfect, the imperfection of one point will still be found with a magnifying glass and then written about it, becoming a negative example.

Only those who don't do things will not be faulty.

Li Ze knew that Wu Jin couldn't stay in Cangzhou anymore, and he couldn't even stay anywhere. There is no place where he will welcome this anomaly.

But Li Ze knew that Wu Jin was right.

No one knows better than him how harmful collusion between officials and businessmen is.

It's just not the time.

He has more important things to deal with.

Wu Jin just brought up the right thing at the wrong time.

Transferring Wu Jin away and removing him from his current official position is not a punishment for him, but a kind of protection for him.

"This time, I transferred you to Chang'an Political and Economic Academy as a gentleman, do you have any discomfort in your heart? If there is, say it, if the Fa is not passed on to the six ears, I won't tell others! Li Ze said with a smile.

Wu Jin arched his hand and said: "Thank you Li Xiang for your love, Wu Jin is grateful." ”

"Exempt your officials, is it still love?" Li Zedao.

"Wu Jin is embattled now." Wu Jin smiled bitterly and said, "Even Hou Shi, who has always loved me, now ignores me, let alone other people." was not beaten on the street, Wu Jin was already very happy. Now that I have left the officialdom and become a gentleman, I think that those who hate Wu will treat me like a fart. ”

"When you wrote this excerpt, did you think about this consequence?" Li Ze asked.

"Of course I did. Wu is not a stupid person either. Wu Jin said: "But Wu still wants to say that even if he is hated by everyone and his career is cut off, this hidden danger must be revealed as soon as possible." Li Xiang, now that the Tang Dynasty is in the ascendant and prosperous, all the contradictions have been covered up by one victory after another. But in the long run, these small hidden dangers, which seem to be nothing at the moment, will inevitably become fatal abscesses on Datang's body. ”

"You seem to have a feeling!" Li Ze asked.

"Naturally. Xiaguan told Li Xiang a real example, and this incident happened in the hands of Xiaguan. Wu Jin took a sip of the teacup and moistened his throat: "I personally presided over the expansion project of Haixing Port. ”

"Since you personally presided over it, why did there still go wrong?" Li Ze asked rhetorically.

"The lower officials are helpless." Wu Jin sighed: "At that time, a total of six merchants entered the final bidding process, one of which was extremely powerful, and the other five knew that the enemy could not be beaten, so the five joined forces to form an alliance. In this way, they are on par with this one in terms of strength, and even surpass them in terms of technology. ”

"Leaked bids?" Li Ze frowned.

Wu Jin nodded: "I found out afterwards." The bids of these five alliances were leaked, and the amount of the bids of that one was also tampered with, which was exactly 10,000 taels of silver lower than the bids of these five alliances. ”

"If that's all there is to it, I'll put up with it. Anyway, no matter who it is, in terms of quality, it will definitely not be able to bypass me. But after this incident, the alliance collapsed, and two of them were pulled over by that one, and then in the process of construction, all kinds of problems appeared, and the cost of construction rose again and again, and the price of the final completed part exceeded the estimated cost by more than double the estimated cost. But at that time, we were already struggling to ride a tiger, and we had to break our teeth and swallow them in our stomachs. Because there's no one to take care of it. Wu Jin said angrily: "And in the end, all we can deal with is two small officials." Tell me, can you do this with two small officials? ”

Li Ze also frowned.

"I believe that this kind of thing is not just happening in my Cangzhou." Wu Jin said angrily: "Li Xiang, how has it been for a long time?" Not only are they embezzling state property, but they are also cracking down on those merchants who compete with them, and if these merchants are defeated by them, won't the court be held by them in the future? ”

Li Ze nodded slightly. "I know all these things, but there are priorities, at the moment, I can't take care of it, Wu Jin, you go to the Academy of Political Science and Economics to teach for a period of time first, to avoid this limelight, after a while, I will have a new appointment for you."

Wu Jin sighed: "Li Xiang, I have become the target of the public, no matter where I go to work, I will only do bad things, it will be difficult to succeed, I am willing to teach in the Academy of Political Science and Economics all the time, I believe that those students can still listen to what I say." ”

Li Zeyi smiled and said, "Don't worry, I will arrange your position." It's true that you're no longer fit to serve in a local position, but there's a place that's definitely the most suitable for people like you, and let's go and rest for a while, and recuperate and recuperate, you're not yet forty years old, but your temples are gray. ”