The praise of the new governor of Shanxi only lasted for half a day, and early the next morning, notices were posted at all yamen and bustling streets in the entire Taiyuan City, and the imperial court vigorously cleaned up the deficit of Shanxi's prefectures and counties, and those who had money and grain with local officials or had money and grain stored in the local officials' warehouses should be handed over within half a month, and once the time limit had passed, all the money and grain would be confiscated, and all the officials of the prefectures, prefectures, and counties would be dismissed from their posts on the spot and transferred to Australia.

As soon as the notice came out, the entire Taiyuan City immediately exploded, and the common people were all clapping their hands, waiting to see the excitement, after all, they had never seen such a strict way to clean up the deficit, and everyone was talking about how many officials would be dismissed and investigated this time, even if they were not investigated, and they were transferred to Australia as officials, it would be miserable.

A group of wealthy businessmen and gentry are anxious and uneasy, they have always had a close relationship with local officials, most of them have money dealings with local officials, officials have a variety of means of deficit, all kinds of tricks, many are closely related to local gentry and businessmen, such as indiscriminate lending, deducted profits, private appropriation of treasury items, trading to earn interest, false misappropriation, buying money, disbursement of people's debts, turning deficits into nothingness, mixing official losses into people's debts, etc., all must borrow from businessmen and gentry.

Merchants and gentry can naturally profit from it, so the collusion between officials and businessmen, the exchange of money is naturally close, and it is also a common thing to borrow money and grain to help officials cover up the deficit, and now the imperial court suddenly investigates the deficit on a large scale, and will remove the officials on the spot and transfer them to Australia, how can they not be in a hurry?

With such a large scale and vigorous efforts to clean up the deficit, God knows whether it will implicate them, and all the gentry and merchants are worried, not only worried that the money will not be recovered, but also worried that the officials will bite them, so that the court will investigate their crimes, these officials are not as righteous and trustworthy as their Jin merchants.

And the most panicked is that Baba dared to come to Zhenwu to meet a group of officials from Daozhou County, since the news that the imperial court was going to thoroughly investigate the deficit, they were all under house arrest in Taiyuan City, they were naturally bitter, this year. Who doesn't have a deficit in their hands? They are just unlucky people who beat the drum and pass the flowers. To their relief, Zhenwu had already spoken out that as long as he could fill the shortfall, he could be exempted from accountability.

However, a number of state and county officials are still angry, as the most basic officials, the provincial officials above and the provincial officials have to be punished, and the annual filial piety alone is thousands of taels. The rich counties even cost tens of thousands of taels, is it possible that these silver will be wasted?

Ma Qi, Wang Lu, and Yu Xu, who presided over the inventory of the deficit, did not have the heart or time to listen to the complaints of the state and county officials at this time, but were busy with the transfer of soldiers, secondment of the tent room, arrangement of supervisors, and division of prefectures and counties. Prepare to go to various places as soon as possible.

The whole Taiyuan city was busy, but Zhenwu quietly left the city early in the morning and set off for Xi'an.

Xi'an, the first of the four ancient capitals, the ancient capital of the thirteen dynasties, the former capital of the Qin, Han, Sui and Tang dynasties, once flourished for thousands of years, although it is not prosperous now. However, it is still an important military town that maintains the security of the northwest. Among the garrisons of the Eight Banners of the Great Qing Dynasty, only Shengjing, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Jiangning, Jingkou, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, and Jingzhou had the post of general, and there were 10 in Xi'an. This shows the military status of Xi'an in the northwest region.

Garrisoning heavy troops and accumulating grain and grass in Xi'an can attack Huguang in the south and enter Sichuan in the west, and at the same time can deter Shanxi and Shaanxi, so the imperial court's troops stationed in Xi'an have been increasing unabated. The number of troops also gradually increased to 8,000, including 5,000 of the Manchurian and Mongolian Eight Banners and 3,000 of the Han Army.

Zhenwu also went to Xi'an with the intention of focusing on the operation of Xi'an, and to use Xi'an as the largest military base and firearms production base in the northwest, not only to deter the two lakes of Sichuan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan, but also to consider the need to stabilize and consolidate the northwest; Dzungaria is not worthy of such caution, and the most important thing is Russia; if you want to seize the territory of Central Asia from the mouth of the polar bear, there will inevitably be a protracted small-scale war, and it is impossible to take precautions.

Taiyuan is more than 1,400 miles away from Xi'an, Zhenwu is still all the way fast, did not notify the local officials along the way, however, the officials along the way have already learned that Zhenwu's royal car arrived in Taiyuan, as soon as they saw the cavalry of the brigade to close the road, they naturally guessed that it was Zhenwu's royal car arrived, and they rushed to meet it.

Although Zhenwu was in a hurry, he also had to meet these local officials who rarely saw the face of heaven at noon or when he was in a guard, but even so, he did not delay his trip, and arrived in Xi'an ten days later.

The Shangshu Laidu of the Criminal Department, the Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, Ehai, the General of Xi'an, the Governor of Shaanxi, the Governor of Shaanxi, and the Deputy Governor of Xi'an, such as Barbu, led the officials of Xi'an and the gentry of the city to welcome the Holy Driver.

Zhenwu has never liked these occasions, but considering that it is the first time since he ascended the throne to Xi'an, and the news of Shanxi's inventory has also reached Xi'an, if they show their faces, Xi'an's big and small officials will immediately panic, so they have to be patient and swagger into the city, just one into the city wasted half a day's time.

After entering the city, Zhenwu lived directly in the full city of Xi'an, and his majesty stationed in the Xi'an General's Mansion, which had already been vacated, rested for a while, and then he ordered: "The four people of Shangshu Laidu of the Ministry of Punishment, the Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, Xi'an General Xizhu, and the Governor of Shaanxi Qiqi are here. ”

Zhenwu in Shanxi faction and the way to clean up the deficit in Shanxi has long been passed to Xi'an by the fast horse, a large and small officials are anxious Hou outside, the criminal department Shangshu Lai can be said to be like a mess, he is Zhenwu single-handed, but in order to support the Xuxu River and privately allowed Xuxu to withhold more than one million disaster relief money and grain, originally thought that it was the emperor of the mountain high, but did not expect Zhenwu to come to Xi'an in person, although the silver has been transferred through the 'four Heng', he is still very worried.

The governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, Ehai, was promoted by Kangxi, and he was also quite uneasy, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi was not famous among the governors of the Qing Dynasty, and could even be said to be the poorest, but he was the governor with the heaviest military power, responsible for the barrier in the northwest of Beijing, and his position was pivotal.

Xi'an General Xi Zhu is calm, he is a veteran, and Xi'an's Eight Banners soldiers are very strict in training, it can be said that there is no burden, but he is quite dissatisfied with Zhenwu's efforts to drum up the new army and raise the salary of the Green Battalion soldiers to equal with the Eight Banners soldiers.

The guards who listened came out to deliver the decree, and Lai Du, Ehai and the other four did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly followed the guards into the hall, knelt down respectfully and said: "Slaves Lai Du, Ehai, Xi Zhu, and Qi Qi respectfully invite Sheng'an." ”

Zhenwu glanced at the four of them, and said with a smile: "No courtesy, give a seat." ”

After the four of them sat down, he asked slowly: "Shanxi's disaster relief has caused a lot of leaks, how is Shaanxi?" ”

Seeing that Zhenwu opened his mouth to ask about disaster relief, Shang Shulai of the Criminal Department, who was in charge of disaster relief in Shaanxi, was busy getting up and kneeling, consciously took off his crown, and kowtowed: "Back to the emperor, the slave has the grace of the saint, neglecting his duties, a small part of the disaster relief money and grain was intercepted by Shanxi, and it was only transferred a few days ago. ”

Seeing that Lai Du told the matter truthfully, where did Ehai and Qiqi dare to sit, they hurriedly got up and knelt down and said: "Slaves and others are also guilty of negligence, and I beg the emperor to punish them together." ”

Xi'an General Xi Zhu is a long-time officialdom, when he saw this situation, he knew that sitting alone was too dazzling, although this matter had nothing to do with him, but he still knelt down silently.

Seeing that Xi Zhu also knelt down, Zhenwu couldn't help but glance at him and said, "Xi Zhu, what does this matter have to do with you?" ”

"Ugh." Xi Zhu couldn't help but be stunned, how could he ask him first that he was a person who was fine, and he replied truthfully: "Back to the emperor, everyone else is kneeling, and the slave is still sitting quite disrespectful." ”

Slippery, Zhenwu scolded secretly, and then said: "This matter has nothing to do with you, get up and sit down." ”

"Slave thanks to the emperor for his grace." Xi Zhu glanced at the three of them before getting up, but in his heart he pinched the sweat for the three of them, the governor of Shanxi, the political envoy did not end well, and the governor was also dismissed from the Imperial History of the Left Capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Sure enough, as soon as he sat down, Zhenwu, who listened to him, said in a deep voice: "I have ordered five times, not to embezzle the money and food for disaster relief, is it possible that my edict can't reach Shaanxi?" ”

Lai Du was slightly stunned when he heard this, this is going to the Ehai and Qiqi in Shaanxi? He couldn't help but secretly complain, if he didn't do well, he might suffer from the pond fish, and Ehai and Qiqi were even more slanderous, even if they wanted to use the topic to play, they didn't need to be so obvious, this question, the nature of the question has completely changed, and it has changed from negligence to disrespect for the will.

At this time, Ehai didn't care about Lai Du, first take himself out and then say, he was busy taking the lead in kowtowing and said: "The slaves are diligent and cautious, do not dare to neglect the slightest, the disaster relief matters are arranged in an orderly manner, proper and thorough, this disaster relief, the money and food are sufficient beyond the expectations of the slaves, the allocated money and grain are set one after another, Shaanxi has received more than one million silver, and there are still 'four constant' interest-free loans and relief, the slaves and so on did not expect that there will be more than 1 million silver in the future, pension silver, and harm removal silver, which is a slight negligence, I pray that the emperor will be discerning. ”

Qiqi also kowtowed and said: "The servants are really unintentional, and I implore the emperor to see it." On the contrary, Lai didn't know how to reply, so he simply kowtowed without saying a word.

This is really a drop of water, not only reasonable, but also flattered Zhenwu by the way, Zhenwu nodded slightly, and then said: "Since it is an unintentional mistake, I am not very sorry for myself, Ehai and Qiqi will be punished for three months, and Lai will be demoted to three levels to stay in office." (To be continued.) )