Daming: After self-explosive time travel, Lao Zhu's mentality collapsed

Chapter 879 Corrupt Officials
He gave them a new purpose and direction.

"Your Majesty is wise!"

"Your Majesty said it well!"

Everyone praised loudly in unison.

Chu Ze understood that to achieve Fengyang's economic development, it was not enough to punish corrupt officials alone. It was also necessary to guide the people to actively participate in the construction.

As a result, he issued a reward policy to encourage people to report corruption by local officials, and organized people to build new water conservancy facilities and improve farmland irrigation.

Chu Ze personally participated in guiding the design of the dam and drew a scientific and reasonable water conservancy layout based on the local topography and river direction.

Under Chu Ze's guidance, the newly built dam was stronger and could effectively control the water flow to irrigate hundreds of miles of farmland downstream.

At the same time, Chuze began to introduce some improved agricultural tools, such as lighter steel hoes, which greatly increased farmers' working efficiency.

In addition, he introduced drought-resistant, high-yielding wheat seeds.

These varieties of wheat are larger in size and have better yield protection during drought and flood conditions.

With Chu Ze's encouragement, many farmers began to experiment with growing these new varieties.

Preliminary results show that yields per acre increased by more than 30%.

These measures quickly enhanced farmers' enthusiasm for production, and agricultural output also increased significantly.

In order to raise funds for railway construction, Chu Ze adopted the method of auctioning the Jin Xuehai family's antique collection and the Liu family's property.

These collections and properties were quickly competed for by wealthy businessmen, including many rare treasures, such as the Tang Dynasty red lacquer plate passed down from Jin Xuehai's ancestors, which was painted with glittering gold and silver patterns, and was sold by a businessman for a sky-high price of 10 silver.

There was also the largest silk and satin workshop in Fengyang owned by the Liu family, which was also auctioned off by a businessman for 30 silver.

Wealthy businessmen in Fengyang rushed to help, and this auction raised hundreds of thousands of silver for railway construction.

At the same time, Chuze set out to teach railway construction techniques himself.

He drew detailed construction drawings that noted the load-bearing requirements of the bridge, the spacing dimensions of the tracks, and the proper proportions of the locomotives.

To ensure that people can understand it, Chu Ze also simplified the drawings and added more intuitive annotations.

Under his careful guidance, many people understood the secrets of modern engineering construction for the first time, and they all said that they had never seen such advanced knowledge before.

Chu Ze even taught craftsmen how to make excellent screws, nails, rails and other supplies.

Using the tool samples he brought, he explained how to cut threads, how to quench materials, etc.

With his help, a team of skilled craftsmen quickly grew up to provide solid technical support for railway projects.

These actions of Chu Ze made the people full of awe of his ability and courage.

"Your Majesty, it's so amazing that you can actually create such a mechanical track!"

"Your Majesty knows so much, we must learn more from him!"

The craftsmen sighed.

In Fengyang, the railway construction project has been going on for several months. In addition to paying compensation to the victims who were persecuted by Jin Xuehai and the Liu family, half of the silver gained from the house confiscation was also consumed rapidly during this period.

Chuze had to admit that it would be difficult to complete such a huge project with existing funds alone.

He first sent Zhao Si and Li Xing to raise financial support, but the effect was not ideal. The two of them went there for nearly a month, but encountered obstacles in front of merchants from various places, and no one was willing to help.

Chu Ze suddenly noticed some unusual losses in the financial accounts.

"Wait, wait a minute." Chu Ze frowned and checked the account book, and found that the expenditure on railway construction far exceeded the actual progress, and many of it was unreasonable.

"It seems that someone in the accounts is deliberately misusing funds. We must find corrupt officials!"

"That's it!" Li Xing suddenly realized, "Let's just talk about how to spend money so fast."

"Zhao Si, you immediately lead an investigation and uncover these corrupt officials!" Chu Ze said in a deep voice.

"Yes, you will definitely live up to your mission!" Zhao Si responded respectfully.

If underlying corruption is not addressed, more money will just be deliberately wasted.

Chu Ze understood that in order for the plan to be implemented smoothly, hidden dangers must be eliminated first.

At the same time, he is also considering longer-term countermeasures—developing new tax sources is fundamental.

Once new financial support is found, Fengyang's construction will have no worries.

To this end, Chu Ze plans to first open Fengyang's business restrictions and remove some unreasonable market barriers and tax controls to attract more foreign businessmen to do business in Fengyang.

After a month of secret investigation, Zhao Si and others finally found out the misuse of railway construction funds by certain officials.

On this day, Zhao Si came to Chu Ze and saluted respectfully: "Reporting to your lord, I have investigated clearly and it is true that the railway construction funds were abused by some corrupt officials. These people used the project expenses to confuse the public and took a large amount of funds for themselves." .The specific persons involved are as follows..."

Zhao Si presented a detailed list with the names of more than a dozen people.

Chu Ze frowned after browsing. These people were all Fengyang officials, but the total embezzled funds amounted to more than 100,000 silver!
"They are so greedy that they don't forget themselves at this time!" Chu Ze said solemnly: "What a shame! Zhao Si, you have sufficient evidence, arrest them for trial as soon as possible!"

"Yes" Zhao Si responded and immediately stepped back to carry out Chu Ze's order.

Three days later, the officials involved were escorted to the Yamen lobby one after another.

Everyone looked pale, stood with their heads down, and said nothing.

Zhao Si led the soldiers to push them into the lobby one by one, and locked their hands and feet with chains.

Most of these officials were dressed in luxurious clothes, and the turbans on their heads had been removed, making them look miserable.

Chu Ze walked slowly in front of the crowd, with a cold look in his eyes. He raised his voice and said: "You corrupt officials, how dare you only care about your own selfish desires in the face of a great cause, what a shame! You actually embezzled the people's hard-earned money with peace of mind, your conscience Was it eaten by a dog?”

Everyone looked at each other, and a young official in his twenties spoke tremblingly: "Your Majesty, please calm down, we have no choice but to do so. The young and old in the family have to eat, and the official position is small, so we can only rely on these incomes to supplement our income..."

"It's unreasonable!" Chu Ze shouted angrily: "National construction requires financial support, but you deliberately take people's hard-earned money for your own use, and you still want to make excuses?!"

The little official suddenly fell to his knees and begged: "Your Majesty, forgive me! We really know our mistake and we will never dare to do it again!"

"Come here, put them all in prison until the edict is issued!" Chu Zeli ignored them and ordered directly.

The officials' faces instantly turned deathly pale, and they knelt on the ground, pleading with the sky and the earth: "Your Majesty, please spare your life! We still have wives and children to feed!"

"If you think about your family, you shouldn't be greedy!" Chu Ze said with hatred.

Everyone was still struggling, but they were quickly dragged out of the lobby roughly by the escorting officers.

(End of this chapter)