Fu Shanhe

Chapter 94: Do Not Support Useless Officials
The night is the best cover. Faced with the endless stream of rebels, the limited government troops simply cannot kill them all.

Especially the elderly, the weak, women and children who were escaping, they knelt down and begged for mercy as soon as they arrived, which seriously affected the speed of the government troops' actions.

We clearly know that these people are covering up for the young and strong to escape.

The young officers who still had some moral bottom line ordered them to surrender.

Time passed minute by minute, the dawn appeared from the sky, and the war gradually came to an end.

"Your Excellency, the commander-in-chief, last night the East City Thousand Households Unit killed more than 3,000 rebels and captured more than 20,000 rebels."

"Commander-in-chief, last night, the West City Thousand Households Unit killed more than 2,800 rebels and captured more than 20,000 rebels."

"Commander-in-chief, last night the Central City Thousand Households Unit killed more than 2,000 rebels and captured more than 16,000 rebels."

……

Upon hearing that the four thousand households had all reaped rich rewards and had won a turnaround, Marquis Wuyang had a constant smile on his face.

Although the bandit leader was not caught, Taizhou City was captured.

The face of the Five Cities Army was saved, and his face as the commander was also saved. The rest were just side issues.

Huang Renlong is the actual bandit leader, but due to political needs, the Taizhou bandit leaders wanted by the official are the members of the Zong family.

The members of the Zong family died in the internal fighting among the rebels, but with a little artistic processing, it became the battle record of the Five Cities Army.

"The battle was going well. Send someone to notify Lord Xu and the six ministries in Nanjing and ask them to send someone to take over Taizhou City immediately."

Marquis Wuyang gave the order with a smile.

Taizhou was an empty city at that time, and there was nothing good to receive, but capturing prisoners was a big trouble.

The four thousand-household units captured nearly 70,000 enemy troops in total, more than 90% of whom were the elderly, the weak, women and children, basically all the rebels' family members.

He had to deal with it, but he couldn't bear to drag them all out and chop them up.

If you can't find a way to have the best of both worlds, the best option is to throw away the burden.

It is the responsibility of civil servants to govern local areas, and they must take the blame.

"Commander, while we were clearing out the remnants of the rebels, we found some captives in the city..."

Before Captain Zhao could finish his words, Marquis Wuyang's face suddenly turned dark.

“Your people must have seen it wrong!

The nobles of Dayu are all men of steel. How could they become prisoners of the rebels?

I think someone must be impersonating them and wants to ruin their reputation.

If you encounter such a despicable person, just deal with him directly to avoid polluting your eyes!"

It would be fine if one or two people were defeated and captured, but if a group of nobles and their relatives were captured, it would be a huge joke if it got out.

For each family, it is better to let such a child who brings disgrace to the family die than to let him live.

At the very least, if you die in battle for your country, you can receive rewards from the court.

From the moment they were sent out, these abandoned guys were already dead in the eyes of those in power.

To put it bluntly, if we kill all these guys, the public security in Beijing will improve significantly and the crime rate can be reduced by at least 30%.

“What the commander-in-chief taught us is that these are all conspiracies of the rebels.

Since they can’t defeat us on the battlefield, they are trying to use such despicable means to slander our colleagues who died in battle!”

Zhao Yawei hurried to remedy the situation.

This brief conversation determined the fate of a group of playboys.

No one present spoke up for these unfortunate guys.

From the empire's perspective, this cleansing was far from enough.

If all the playboys in the world could be eliminated, the fortunes of the Dayu Dynasty could last at least another thirty years.

Most of the unjust, false and wrong cases among the people are caused by these guys.

Without these parasites, the quality of the ruling group can at least be improved to a higher level.

With the end of the meeting, the Wucheng Bingmasi’s journey south also came to an end.

The right to local governance is a taboo for military generals and they are definitely not allowed to interfere.

The Marquis of Wuyang was not qualified to directly intervene in the salt administration reform, let alone an insignificant officer like Li Mu, who had even less say.

It will be almost the same if you make some money.

The big cake of salt industry is the food of the big shots, and he doesn't care about it at all.

After he had some free time, Li Mu began to think about the next path forward, which was also a common worry for all the generals of the Five Cities Military Division.

In order to meet the needs of war, everyone continued to expand their military forces in private.

Now that the war is over, the excess soldiers are a major problem.

Everyone felt reluctant to let them go directly.

As a military general, you may go to the battlefield at any time, and having an army ready to fight is extremely precious.

All of them were turned into servants to be supported, which was another heavy financial burden.

It would be fine if the next position is a lucrative one, but if it is a poor government office, maintaining an army would be a hassle.

Except for a very small number of people who were frightened by the war and wanted to return to Beijing to take up their posts, most people were busy.

All kinds of personal connections were put into action and letters were flying everywhere, all in an attempt to find a good place to work.

As the most accessible figure to everyone, Marquis Wuyang's tent was always crowded with people.

Li Mu keenly discovered that the atmosphere in the camp had changed.

The Wucheng Bingmasi's journey southward became a machine for producing military merits.

Any random officer has dozens or even hundreds of heads to his name.

According to Dayu law, everyone undoubtedly met the basic requirements for promotion of military officers.

With so many generals waiting to be promoted appearing all of a sudden, there must not be enough high-quality vacancies in the court.

What's more, in addition to the Five Cities Military Forces, the Beijing Camp is also the base camp for the children of nobles.

We have made great achievements here, but the results over there are even better.

Since everyone has connections, the competition will only become more intense.

It’s not so bad if there are few children in the family. As long as they show certain potential, they can get strong support from the family.

The worst off are those who have many brothers. Many of their brothers, cousins, uncles, nephews and nieces serve in the military and happen to face the need for promotion at the same time.

Limited resources cannot cover everyone, and the court will not allow one party to dominate, so someone is bound to make sacrifices in their official career.

Even brothers from the same clan may have their private relationships affected by their personal careers.

Former colleagues and friends suddenly became competitors in the career, and the impact was even greater.

Compared with most of his colleagues, Li Mu's situation is good.

Although he was not a direct descendant of the Marquis's Mansion, he showed enough potential and was taken seriously by Marquis Zhenyuan.

The distribution of family political resources depends on bloodline, but also on the potential of the children.

The head of the family has a lot of say in who to give the gift to and who not to give it to.

Giving priority to training the most outstanding children in the clan is in the overall interests of the clan, and no one else has any objections.

As the chief meritorious official of the Wucheng Bingmasi, he represents the face of the government office to a certain extent, and also represents the personal inclinations of Marquis Wuyang.

The Ministry of War and the Governor's Office will certainly take these factors into consideration when considering personnel appointments.

The specific position still needs to be negotiated behind the scenes, but at least it won’t be too bad.

While everyone was scrambling to get ahead, Li Mu was left with nothing to do.

Even the operation to capture Huang Renlong was put on hold indefinitely.

It's not that he was derelict in his duty, it's simply that the military has its own rules.

Without the authorization of the commander-in-chief, the generals below have no right to mobilize the troops.

Moreover, the limited clues in hand could not guarantee the arrest of the culprit. It was a taboo in the officialdom to volunteer but fail to complete the task.

Especially when you are approaching a critical moment of promotion, it is better to do less than more, and not making mistakes is a merit.

……

Yangzhou City.

After receiving the good news, Lord Xu felt overwhelmed.

After being in the south for so long, he hasn't had any good things happen to him, but has been plagued by troubles one after another.

It was a great joy that the government troops recaptured Taizhou City, but the more than 70,000 prisoners of war left behind were a hot potato.

The military generals didn't kill the surrendered soldiers, so it would be even more wrong for him, a leader of the clean class, to do anything.

Amnesty is impossible. No matter how conciliatory you are, there is no reason to pardon traitors.

According to past practice, the imperial court often exiled or sent soldiers to the army to deal with those who were suspected of rebelling.

After all, those who were able to rebel were all young and strong; the old, the weak, women and children had long since died in the war.

It would be a pity to kill him directly, so it would be better to make use of him, which would also reflect the benevolence of the court.

The prisoners captured by the Wucheng Bingmasi this time were in special circumstances. There were not many young and strong men captured, but a lot of the old, the weak, women and children were captured.

They were exiled and forced to serve as soldiers. I guess they would all fall down before they even got to their destination.

Even if there are some who survive by chance, the border troops will not want them.

"Huaichang, what do you think we should do with these people?"

Xu Wenyue put down the document in his hand and asked.

"My Lord, there is no precedent for this kind of thing in our dynasty.

After all, he is a traitor. If we deal with him lightly, we will not be able to justify it.

People in the world sympathize with the weak. If you punish them too harshly, it will damage your reputation.

It would be better to lock him up first and report to the court for your Majesty's decision!"

Hou Huaichang said with a little hesitation.

The Qingliu Party was not favored by the emperor, and often blamed the emperor when they encountered difficult problems.

Natural disasters and man-made disasters are caused by the emperor's lack of virtue, the court's financial deficit is caused by the emperor's extravagance and waste, and the defeat on the front line is caused by the emperor's failure to appoint wise ministers...

It just so happens that this group of wise ministers are only responsible for discovering problems but never solving them.

"inappropriate!"

Xu Wenyue shook his head in disappointment.

As a cabinet minister from the Qingliu faction, Xu Wenyue was naturally not a simple member of the Qingliu party.

Compared with many of his colleagues, he has political ambitions.

He couldn't devote himself to his work until his death, but he still wanted to do things within his ability.

When encountering problems, the easiest thing to do is to blame the emperor, but this will also make him lose the emperor's trust.

Emperor Tianyuan is not someone who is easily fooled. The several clean-style leaders who had done so before all went back home to farm.

"Sir, if you don't report this to the court, then why not wait and see for a while.

We don't just have prisoners of war here, there are also some in Huai'an Prefecture.

We can first see what the eunuch party does, and if it is appropriate, we can follow suit.

Even if it causes adverse effects, when necessary, we can design a plan to let the eunuch party take the blame!"

After listening to Hou Huaichang's new suggestion, Xu Wenyue nodded with satisfaction.

It is much safer to blame colleagues than to blame the emperor.

Even if the matter was leaked, the Qingliu Party would insist that it was done by the eunuch party.

“Send a message to Marquis Wuyang and ask him to take care of the prisoners first. I will send someone to deliver the necessary food and fodder to him as soon as possible.

Send someone to urge the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue and tell them to hurry up and collect grain. I will give them seven more days at most.

If we haven't collected 300,000 shi of grain by the deadline, we can just go home.

The imperial court does not keep useless officials!

Tell the Minister of Personnel that if there is no other suitable candidate, I will submit a petition to the court to recommend him as the prefect of Yangzhou."

Xu Wenyue said indifferently.

The Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Personnel are the most powerful departments in Dayu, but they are the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Revenue in the capital, not the retirement reserve offices in Nanjing.

As a cabinet minister, it is not difficult to deal with marginalized pension officials.

As someone who also climbed up step by step, Xu Wenyue knew these officials’ thoughts best.

The reason why there is no movement is simply that no one wants to take responsibility.

If the people below do not take responsibility, then the responsibility will be transferred to him, the imperial envoy.

The current trouble is essentially due to the inaction of these two departments, which has brought him into trouble.

If the Nanjing Ministry of Personnel appoints officials as soon as a vacancy occurs in a provincial or municipal government office, then these matters can be completely left to the people below to handle.

As an imperial commissioner, he only needs to watch over the people below and make sure they do their work.

If something goes wrong, it's the subordinate's fault and he only needs to bear supervisory responsibility.

There is no need for the situation to be like it is now, where not only do we have to do everything ourselves, big or small, but we also have to carry a lot of responsibilities.

……

Taizhou City.

After ten days of cleaning, the bodies in the city were finally cleared.

Stepping into this ancient city, Li Mu's eyes couldn't help but become moist as he saw scars and wounds everywhere.

The destructive power of war is really too great.

A rebellion destroyed a state capital.

If we want to restore the former prosperity, it will be difficult to recover without decades of recuperation.

“Sir, the number of prisoners falling ill in the neighboring camps has increased dramatically.

Many people began to vomit, and the army doctor said that they might have been infected with the plague! "

After hearing the news brought by Lan Linjie, Li Mu's face suddenly darkened.

The Battle of Taizhou was fought by the other four thousand households, and they were also responsible for guarding the captured prisoners of war.

Deep down in his heart, Li Mu had already greeted the families of all his colleagues.

In this era of backward medical conditions, the lethality of plague is no less than that of war.

Knowing that the plague was serious, no preventive measures were taken in time.

Even he had received the news that the plague had appeared in the camp for more than one or two days.

Li Mu didn't know whether it was because of the lack of experience in dealing with the plague or because he was too busy working for promotion and neglected the management of the camp.

In short, he knew that the Wucheng Bingmasi was in big trouble.

The POW camps were mostly populated by the elderly, the weak, women and children, and the plague had the greatest killing power on these people.

If a large number of prisoners of war died, the censors who were busy finding fault with the officials all day long would definitely not miss the opportunity to make trouble.

"Pass the order down that from now on no one is allowed to drink raw water and all food must be cooked.

If anyone is found to be sick, they will be isolated and treated immediately.

Tell the soldiers not to go out for no reason, especially not to go to the military camp where the plague has occurred. "

Li Mu immediately gave the order.

(End of this chapter)