Guo Zhiyuan couldn't help but pat his forehead with a headache when he heard this, this large number of problems has not been solved, and there are two more "soil emperors". The Ming Dynasty has a saying that "the imperial power is not under the county", the squire power is a very headache for the local officials, and there are often conflicts between the local officials and the squires to compete for local dominance, and the result of the conflict is often that the local officials have to bow to the squire forces, otherwise they are afraid that the black yarn hat will not be guaranteed.

The reason for this situation is mainly because the ancient bureaucracy is different from the modern one, and the modern government also has a township government and a town government, and the end point of the ancient bureaucracy is in the county government, and the grassroots level below the county, like the pavilion chief in the village, the chief or something, is mostly elected from the squire, they have local authority, and they dominate the operation of the locality, and this kind of squire power is far more stable than the power of the local officials, and has been inherited for many years, and has already formed a deep-rooted relationship network in the locality, and the local officials may be transferred at any time as long as the term of office arrives, Naturally, it can't compete with the squire's power.

In particular, the officials of the Ming Dynasty officialdom adopted a system of avoidance, that is, the locals could not serve as local officials, but had to go to other provinces to serve, and the officials went to a place where they were not familiar with the place, and if they did not have a good relationship with the local gentry forces, it would definitely be difficult to move an inch. Especially in this era, the concept of local people is very important, and they are very repulsive to outsiders, and even if the local people have disputes and fights, they don't like to mediate with the local government, but will go to the patriarch to judge, which is equivalent to hollowing out the power of the magistrate!

According to what Zhang Cheng said, the patriarchs of the Sun and Chen families are rich and powerful, and the county has to beg them to raise donations if they want to do anything, so can Guo Zhiyuan, the county order, still stand up straight in front of them?

Thinking of this, Guo Zhiyuan had more and more headaches, and when he was worried, he suddenly saw a fire in the distance, and there was a noise outside, Guo Zhiyuan hurriedly rushed to the window, opened the window and looked at the firelight, and suddenly chuckled in his heart: How do you see the direction of the fire like the direction of the county government? !

"Quickly follow me to the county office!" Guo Zhiyuan didn't think much about it, shouted at Zhang Cheng, and hurriedly walked out of the door, just as Fa Zheng and Chu Wan'er also came out to see the movement, Guo Zhiyuan called them together and ran all the way to the fire!

When I came to the gate of the county government, the scene was chaotic, and many people who were watching the excitement were surrounded by the periphery, standing there in a daze and sighing: "What a big fire!" But no one helped put out the fire, the officials were scurrying around like headless flies, and no one stood up to direct and dispatch the fire extinguishing.

Guo Zhiyuan saw the nameless fire, grabbed a scurrying official, and asked sharply: "Where is the fire?!" The official looked at him in a panic, and ran away without saying a word!

Guo Zhiyuan became more and more angry, but at this time, he didn't care about going to trouble this blind official, and took Zhang Cheng and them directly to the county office! rushed all the way to the inner hall, and finally saw a few officials with wooden barrels in a panic carrying water from the well in the courtyard of the wing of the county government and pouring water into a room with thick smoke to extinguish the fire, but because the fire was too big, it was a drop in the bucket at all, and the fire was burning more and more fiercely!

It can't go on like this! If this situation continues, once the fire spreads, the entire county government will be burned! Guo Zhiyuan immediately made a decision, pointed to a few wooden pillars in front of the house and asked Fa Zheng who was following behind him: "Fa Zheng, can you break these wooden pillars, so that the fire source can be blocked and not spread to other houses......

"No problem! Stand back, sir! ......" Fa Zheng patted his chest, then inhaled in his abdomen, shouted, picked up the convenience shovel in his hand, and slashed at the wooden pillar in front of the burning room! "Boom!" , with a loud bang, the wooden pillar with the thickness of the mouth of the sea bowl broke in response, and the eaves that lost their support also collapsed!

Then Fa Zheng concocted according to the law, and all the other wooden pillars were split, and the eaves completely collapsed, which also made the spreading fire blocked, and the fire was controlled.

"Don't hurry up and continue to pour water to extinguish the fire!" Guo Zhiyuan shouted angrily, the officials came to their senses and hurriedly spilled the water in the barrel, Zhang Cheng and they also hurriedly found water utensils to help extinguish the fire together, and finally put out the open fire under the command of Guo Zhiyuan, but the room where the fire broke out was also completely destroyed, and most of it collapsed, and the items in the room were burned to ashes!

Seeing that the fire was extinguished, Guo Zhiyuan did not feel relieved, but immediately grabbed the firefighters and shouted, "What is this room for?" Do you have something important inside? ……”

The officials glanced at each other, hesitated, and finally were a little afraid of Guo Zhiyuan's coercion, and said, "This... This is the bookkeeper, in... Inside... What is stored is... It's money and food account books......"

And so it was! Guo Zhiyuan already had a bad guess in his heart when he saw the fire in the county office, but he never thought that Wang Demin would be so bold and bold that in order not to let himself check the accounts, he would take the risk of setting fire to all the accounts!

A cold light flashed in Guo Zhiyuan's eyes, and he suppressed his anger and continued to ask: "Why did the heavy land of the account room catch fire?!" ……”

Those officials, you look at me, I look at you, shook his head and said, "This... I don't know what these little ones are......"

Guo Zhiyuan also knew that he couldn't ask anything if he looked for these officials, so he said angrily: "The account room is on fire, why don't you see Bai Xiancheng and the king's book?" Don't hesitate to let me know! ……”

As he was talking, there was a rush of footsteps outside, Wang Demin and Bai Du hurriedly came together, seeing the scene that had been turned into ashes and was still smoking, the two exchanged a look of understanding, and the corners of Wang Demin's mouth showed a smile of conspiracy success, but it quickly disappeared, pretending to be very anxious and sighing: "Oh, this... What's going on? How could this account room suddenly catch fire? The county's money and grain account books are all in it, how good is this! ……”

Guo Zhiyuan saw that Wang Demin was still pretending here at this time, and the anger in his heart was even stronger, and the anger rushed to the top of his head, and he couldn't suppress it anymore, and looked at him coldly and said, "Master Wang, don't you think this fire is a little strange?" This is not a fire in the morning, not a fire in the evening, but the fire broke out when the official had just taken office and was about to check the money and grain accounts, do you think that the official is a fool, so easy to deceive?! ……”