In the teahouse in Qidong County, the newspaper reader held the "Shandong Daily" of the day and read it aloud:

"Wang Siyong, the county commander of Qidong County, has sold his reputation for six years, neither collecting the gentry nor the poor. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info This move won a full house on the surface and was applauded by everyone, but in fact, it put the entire Qidong County in a difficult situation. ”

"Qidong County's finances are almost bankrupt, the roads are unrepaired, the official roads are potholed like mud, and the slightest rain makes it impossible to walk for several days. Traders who come and go have to transport goods, and they have to walk for a day in other places, and they have to walk for two or three days in Qidong County. Some fragile goods, such as ceramics, will be damaged a lot on the road, which directly leads to high prices in the county. ”

The tea guests in the teahouse have always regarded Wang Siyong as a rare good official, but they didn't expect that "Shandong Daily" actually began to attack Wang Siyong. And as soon as he came up, he went straight to the point and hit Wang Siyong's weakness.

In the six years since Wang Siyong became the county magistrate, although he has won the praise of the gentry and the common people for his benevolent government, it is also obvious to all that Qidong County is falling into decay day by day. The deserted post station, the potholed roads, the ruined towers, and the clogged sewers are all seen by the people every day. On weekdays, because of Wang Siyong's reputation as a clean official, no one squeaks about these affairs, but the decaying Qidong County does make the lives of the people more and more difficult. At this time, the accusation of "Shandong Daily" made people feel deafening.

"Wang Siyong's corpse is a vegetarian meal, and he is bent on selling his reputation and reputation. After Qidong County paid taxes, there was basically no money left in the finances, and the county government did not do everything that should be done. The wharf on the Daqing River is dilapidated and unusable, the golden waterway of the Daqing River is completely abandoned, and the cost of transporting goods has soared. Qidong County's special products cannot be exported, and goods from outside the county have to be transported in by horse-drawn carriages, which has further raised prices and made the people's lives difficult. ”

The prices in Qidong County are indeed relatively high, and they have become higher and higher over the years. In other places, a piece of cotton cloth only costs one or two silver, but Qidong County has risen to one or two dollars this year. The people didn't know why before, so they could only bear it in silence. At this time, listening to the newspaper people reading the newspaper, everyone knew that this was the reason why the waterway was cut off and the land route was not easy to walk.

It turned out that Wang Siyong, who was so ungreedy, was known as Wang Siyong, a Qing official, who caused such a big problem. The tea guests glanced at each other, their eyes full of surprise.

But the next headlines on the front page are the most shocking.

After all, this is Qidong County, and Wang Siyong is the parent official of this county. The newspaper reader did not dare to read the front page of the day until all the other news and comments were read, and he reluctantly turned the newspaper back to the first page and began to read the headlines.

"Qidong County ordered Wang Siyong to deceive the world and steal his name, killing 62 innocent people."

When the newspaper reader reads this, his voice becomes smaller and quieter, and he is inaudible. A middle-aged man in the teahouse who was making a pattern sat in the front row, but he could no longer hear the words of the newspaper reader. The merchant angrily slapped the table and shouted, "Louder! ”

The newspaper reader was so frightened that he shuddered and read it aloud.

"The embankment of the Daqing River has been in disrepair for a long time, and the slightest flood will cause a catastrophe. The people along the river have long known about this matter, and some local gentry even directly told Wang Siyong, bluntly talking about the damage of the river embankment. ”

"But Wang Siyong sells his reputation and does not collect land endowments, where can he have the money to repair the river embankment? After receiving the report, he re-rammed the earth in only a few of the most conspicuous places. The other dangerous parts were all ignored, and finally caused the tragedy of the Daqing River bursting in the 14th year of Chongzhen. Sixty-two riverside people died in the belly of the fish. ”

In order to deceive his personal reputation, Wang Siyong disregarded the lives of the people in the riverside area. The ugliness beneath its majestic surface is outrageous. ”

Hearing this news, the tea guests in the teahouse were a little unable to react.

It turned out that the 62 lives that drowned in the Daqing River last year should be counted on Wang Siyong's head. Wang Siyong is a clean official who is not greedy and lustful, and he is famous in Shandong, but he has caused such a result.

The businessman, who was sitting in the front row, suffering from the soaring freight rates over the years, angrily slapped the table and shouted, "Hypocrite! ”

The tea guests in the teahouse looked at each other.

But the most lethal is the last sentence of the headline:

"Due to lack of funds, the embankment of the Daqing River has not been repaired so far. As long as there is another big flood, the embankment of the Daqing River may burst again at any time. The lives of tens of thousands of people on both sides of the river are at stake. ”

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For more than ten days in a row, "Shandong Daily" devoted a lot of space to reporting on the affairs of Wang Siyong, the magistrate of Qidong County. Wang Siyong's murder of 62 riverside civilians for his personal reputation was shocking. With the gradual spread of the newspaper, Wang Siyong's reputation as a Qing official went bankrupt little by little, and instead became a typical example of civil officials selling their fame and reputation regardless of the lives of ordinary people.

When the gentry mentioned Wang Siyong, who took the lead in opposing the court, they could no longer be as proud as before. Wang Siyong's appeal in Shandong has disappeared after more than ten days of attacks by the "Shandong Daily".

The "Shandong Daily" even organized reporters to conduct several on-the-spot inspections of the dilapidated embankment of the Daqing River, and published the results of the inspections in the newspaper, which caused an uproar in the whole province of Shandong.

On August 23, Wang Siyong came back from outside the county seat in a sedan chair, frowning in the sedan chair.

In the past ten days, "Shandong Daily" has attacked Wang Siyong nakedly, and his reputation accumulated for decades has collapsed overnight. I was not greedy for money and not lustful, I thought that I didn't have the slightest handle to be caught by Li Zhi, but I didn't expect Li Zhi to be so powerful, and he insisted on putting the responsibility for the Daqing River bursting on his head.

I stood up to challenge Li Zhi, what will happen to me in the end?

Wang Siyong was thinking about it in the sedan chair, but the sedan chair suddenly stopped on the road. There was a commotion ahead.

"Master Qingtian, you can't watch the Daqing River burst the embankment again!"

"Parents, please allocate funds to repair the embankment of the Daqing River!"

"Lord Qingtian, the embankment of the Daqing River is no longer repaired!"

Wang Siyong heard the noisy shouting, and his heart trembled. He opened the window of the sedan chair, looked ahead, and sure enough, he saw hundreds of people kneeling at the gate of the county government. The people were obviously frightened by the facts reported by the "Shandong Daily", and did not want to be drowned by the flood, so they stopped the sedan chair and asked Wang Siyong to repair the river embankment.

Where does Wang Siyong have the money to repair the river embankment? The key to the good reputation he has accumulated over the decades as an official is to exempt the gentry and the poor from the land taxes, and the financial revenue and expenditure of Qidong County are a mess. Being able to give the officials a monthly fee to maintain order in the county is already a careful calculation.

In the past, the people thought that the embankment burst was a natural and man-made disaster, and even a few people who knew the inside story would not go around to say it, so Wang Siyong was fooled. Now that "Shandong Daily" is so hyped up, how will this matter end?

Wang Siyong looked at the people who were kneeling and kowtowing, and knew that this matter was not going to get better. With a wave of his hand, he said to the palanquins: "Rush over." ”

Seeing that the county order ignored the pleas and wanted to rush through the crowd, the people kneeling at the gate of the county government were a little angry.

How many more people will have to drown before the embankment of the Daqing River can be repaired?

A tall man suddenly stood up and shouted loudly: "Dog officer who deceived the world and stole his name, you drowned my parents last year, and you didn't repair the river embankment this year, I fought with you!" ”