"What do you think?" Zhu Xiaohou didn't really understand what Chi Xinian meant, "Does Niangniang want to ask the lower officials about the Pingxing disaster?"

"Yes." Chi Xinian bowed slightly, made a gesture of invitation and motioned for Zhu Xiaohou to take a seat, and then poured a glass of water for each of them, "This palace wants to hear, what do you think about the occurrence of this flood and the follow-up relief?"

"This..." Zhu Xiaohou Ye's gaze turned around on Chi Xinian's expressionless face.

He really couldn't figure out what was going on in this person's mind.

Why, she would suddenly ask herself this question?

But thinking about it, what she asked was not a question that could not be answered, so even though she had doubts, Zhu Xiaohou still replied with respect: "In the eyes of the lower officials, this matter should not be so troublesome."

"Oh? Tell me more about it?" Chi Xinian raised his eyebrows.

"If there were no water bandits, most of the river embankments in Binh Hung would have been well reinforced. In this way, even if there is a lot of rain this year, it will not displace a large number of people. That's one of them."

Pursing his lips, Zhu Ziping said again: "Second, the Pingxing government was defeated by the mountain bandits in the first few times, and there is still a certain amount of time before the flood breaks out. Although a few days is not enough to change anything, if they report to the court for help at that time, maybe... I can salvage some.

"Third, after the flood, the Pingxing government once again concealed the existence of the bandits. When the imperial court sent people to provide disaster relief, it naturally did not consider the problem of bandits.

"If the bandits are more ruthless and attack the disaster relief materials again, then the people of Pingxing...

"Fortunately, the bandits chose to stabilize first and didn't do it again."

Is it steady?

Chi Xinian pressed the corners of his mouth and did not discuss the speculation in his heart with Zhu Ziping.

She just turned the teacup and said, "So you think that the reason why things have developed to the current situation that is quite difficult to clean up is because the Pingxing government has concealed the existence of water bandits again and again, right?"

"Yes." Zhu Ziping thought about it and felt that Chi Xinian had summed it up correctly, so he nodded.

"In this case, most of the responsibility for this flood should be borne by Governor Xu. But..." Chi Xinian's gaze fell on Zhu Xiaohou Ye opposite, and his tone was slightly cold, "Xiao Hou Ye was ordered by the emperor to investigate the inside story of the flood, after learning the responsibility, why didn't he go directly to the court to explain the fault of Governor Xu?"

"Rather, he is still in charge of the big and small things in Pingxing Mansion, and even, continues to participate in disaster relief and the suppression of bandits?"

"There's a reason for that!" Zhu Ziping thought that Chi Xinian was blaming him for his bad behavior, and hurriedly explained to him, "In fact, after entering the boundary of Pingxing Mansion, we have more or less explored things related to water bandits.

"At that time, I wrote a report to the imperial court.

"Originally, I had the same idea as Niangniang, thinking that this was caused by Governor Xu's lack of rigor in doing things, and he should bear most of the responsibility.

"But after communicating with local magistrates, I gradually found that this Xu Governor's Office, which was not rigorous in reporting, did everything properly in other aspects.

"Including the clues I got from today's inspection around Pingcheng, they all show that this Xu Zhifu is a very good parent official.

"The only thing he didn't do well in matters related to the flood was that he didn't report the existence of the water bandits to the police in time."