Looking at Wu Sicheng's secret report to himself, Liu Yan's brows twisted like twists.

The report details how many officials were enriched during the relief effort, the approximate amount, and the results of an investigation into the causes of the Yellow River's burst.

Historically, local officials have taken advantage of various disasters to ask the central government for this or that, and it is even more common for them to falsely report the number of people affected by disasters and exaggerate the disaster situation. The reason for this is that once a disaster occurs, the central government is often too busy providing relief and reassuring the people to have any more energy to take care of these small details. If the disaster is small, there may be someone to supervise it, but the more severe the disaster, the more difficult it is to find out the details. There is also a saying among officials that a small disaster is a small disaster, and a big disaster is a big disaster. This time the disaster is so serious, the officials will inevitably be unable to control their greed, and they will make a fortune in the fire.

Wu Sicheng's ability to do things is indeed extraordinary, and in just a few months, he has investigated all aspects of this disaster clearly, and what is even more commendable is that he did not startle the snake, which is absolutely something that very people can do.

But finding out the truth is not always a happy thing, and Liu Yan is now facing this dilemma - the number of corrupt officials this time is so large that it covers almost all the officials in the affected areas, and although the number of corrupt officials is more or less, the completely clean officials cannot even be counted on one hand.

"Isn't there a clean official in this world? Didn't I give them money on weekdays? Unexpectedly, the top and bottom are united, such a ruler, can the people have no complaints! The more Liu Yan spoke, the more angry he became. A punch slammed into the dragon book case.

"Your Majesty is angry. Since the founding of the country, the officials have long been in peace, and the officials are no longer as honest and honest as they were in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Cleansing and self-love. Nowadays, the atmosphere of officialdom is like this, if it is not the same. It will be difficult to gain a foothold in officialdom. Wu Sicheng immediately replied when he saw this.

"Hateful! Hateful! Liu Yanwu was indignant.

Wu Sicheng knelt on the ground and said: "Weichen has a word to tell, please forgive Weichen for the crime of offense." ”

"What else are you pretending to be with me, if you have something to say, say it quickly!"

"Yes. Wechen thinks that corrupt officials are not necessarily bad, and honest officials are not necessarily good. ”

"What do you mean by that?"

"Your Majesty, please think about it, Your Majesty selects officials in order to better govern the world, so the first place in selecting officials is not his virtue, but his talent, if a clean official does not manage the people under his rule. If it will only make the people suffer, it is not as good as a talented but greedy official. Throughout the disaster relief process, the people were able to be resettled in time, and they were not starved and displaced, and the post-disaster epidemic prevention work was also quite perfect, and all localities were organized to prevent the outbreak of the epidemic, which is enough to prove that although these officials are greedy, they are still very efficient. ”

Liu Yan squinted his eyes and looked at Wu Sicheng and said, "You don't mean that the law is not responsible." Just let them go this time, right? ”

"Of course not. But Your Majesty thinks about it carefully, if you want to dig deeper, if these hundreds of officials, big and small, are all investigated, then all the officials around Weizhou will be gone. To fill this vacancy, the imperial court had to appoint a large number of officials, not to mention that these new officials were completely unfamiliar with the local situation. Among them, there may be incompetent people who will delay the handling of affairs, and this one will be in and out. The appointment and dismissal of nearly 1,000 people will cause much commotion among the various factions in the DPRK. ”

Liu Yan nodded with a calm face. Indeed, what Wu Sicheng said is not unreasonable. The pros and cons of this involve too many and too complicated, and I am afraid that the disadvantages will outweigh the advantages. But Liu Yan still didn't give up, and said: "Then only investigate and deal with a few huge amounts of corruption." ”

Wu Sicheng still shook his head and said: "This is still inappropriate, firstly, the decree of our dynasty does not make such a provision, and Your Majesty is afraid that the people will not be convinced if the case is discussed on a whim; Second, if Your Majesty investigates these officials, how will you deal with the first evil that caused this disaster? ”

Wu Sicheng's words made Liu Yan excited: he only cared about these corrupt officials, and he forgot that there were more headaches behind! This disaster is not only a natural disaster, but also a man-made disaster! And this culprit actually contacted his own harem - Empress Hua!

The father of Empress Hua, the hereditary Duke of Pingguo, is currently the provincial servant of the sect, and the current abbot Hua Tianyu. He had two brothers, and as the eldest son, he naturally inherited the title of Duke of Pingguo, and at the same time became the backbone of the neutral faction in the DPRK. However, his brother Hua Tianqing only received the false title of General Weiyuan, and nothing else. Therefore, Hua Tianyu felt deeply guilty about this younger brother, so he gave half of the hereditary fief to this younger brother, hoping that he could live a prosperous life. A significant portion of Hua Tianqing's fiefdom was located on the south bank of the Yellow River in the Weizhou region.

As Her Majesty's own uncle, even if Hua Tianqing is not a high-minded and bullying person, local officials are naturally indispensable to all kinds of flattery and filial piety. As early as when the empress was still the crown princess, Weizhou officials spent 70% of the annual cost of building the Yellow River dam to repair the south bank to ensure the safety of Hua Tianqing's fiefdom, and this proportion rose to 90% after Liu Yan succeeded to the throne. So over the years, the maintenance of the embankment on the north bank has been a bit stretched, and in the last two years, it has deteriorated, and if it weren't for the fear that there would be problems on the north bank, the officials would have used all the money on the south bank. In this way, under the violent impact of the Yellow River, a large section of the north bank of the embankment finally could not bear it and completely collapsed.

So fundamentally speaking, although Hua Tianqing cannot be completely blamed for this matter, it is also caused by him, after all, he has always been willing to take such a ridiculous behavior of officials. If you want to dig deeper, Hua Tianqing took care of his own selfish interests and caused this disaster, these officials are naturally to blame, but Hua Tianqing can't get rid of the stakes. If the matter affects Hua Tianqing, then it will naturally be brought to the national abbot Hua Tianyu and the queen.

Such a big case, if you don't do it, Liu Yan really can't hold back her anger, but if she does, she will be jealous, the queen has not been in good health since she gave birth, and a strong woman like the queen, if she is implicated in this matter, her mood is unknown, it will be very detrimental to her recovery. Liu Yan, who didn't want to hurt the queen and didn't want to be ashamed of his conscience, took the secret report in his hand like a hot potato, and didn't know where to start. As Wu Sicheng said, this matter is much more difficult than dealing with the many corrupt officials. And if this matter cannot be handled impartially, how can I have the face to punish those corrupt officials?

The two monarchs and ministers looked at each other, and it was difficult to decide. At this moment, someone outside the door suddenly came to report: "The king of Zhongyi asks to see." (To be continued......)