I, Altria, only want to rule China.

Leah thought of the Three Gorges Project, but... it was still too urgent now.

After the female official bowed and responded, Liya suddenly stopped and pointed at the hazy figure in the distance and said, "Let's go and take a look."

The sky was just getting light and a little hazy. Normally, it was not time to get up yet, let alone after the flood. So many people suddenly gathered. Could it be that something went wrong?

After walking to where the crowd gathered, Leah squeezed into the crowd without hesitation, looking around with the crowd, as if she was also a member of the crowd.

It was not until a long while later that a voice came from the end of the crowd: "Here they come! Here they come!"

As the shouts died down, someone lit firecrackers. The smell of gunpowder and torn red paper spread everywhere, accompanied by the crackling sound of firecrackers, and the sound of gongs and drums also rang out.

Seeing this, Leah smiled.

This is such a coincidence. If someone's family is getting married, she can go along, pay a portion of the money, and have a meal at the feast. Then, breakfast and lunch will be solved at the same time.

Unfortunately, Leah waited for a long time but the sedan chair did not appear. After a few drummers passed by, the garrison soldiers in military uniforms appeared.

With the appearance of these soldiers, the people who had been prepared long ago brought out a table full of wine bowls from somewhere, and then brought out a few jars of wine. After opening the mud seal, they began to pour the wine bowl by bowl.

This was not someone getting married, but the garrison troops who had just finished helping the disaster relief were preparing to leave quietly, but they still couldn't escape the pursuit and blockade of the common people and were blocked again!

Two village elders staggered in the middle of the road, stopping the battalion commander and the military supervisor who were leading the troops, and then young and strong men followed with a wine table.

"We are not stopping you from leaving today. We don't have anything else. We just have a few eggs from our own home and some homemade wine. They are not valuable or rare. Drink the wine and take the eggs, and we will let you go."

It’s okay if you don’t want to accept the things, but you have to accept the eggs. It’s okay if you want to leave, but you have to drink the wine.

"This is..." Leah was a little surprised.

The soldiers who were stopped looked at their captain.

The captain could only spread his hands helplessly.

You can't push away or talk to these village elders who are in their seventies and eighties. Even if the county magistrate comes, they have to put on a smiling face. They can't say that they can tolerate being beaten or scolded, but that's basically the same.

Besides, how could they not drink when people stopped them on the road to toast them? This was all out of the kindness of the villagers.

In desperation, the captain had to reach out to take the wine bowl.

However, these hands that were so steady when holding a gun or a knife, and could chop people like killing a chicken, were shaking slightly when they picked up the wine bowl.

The soldiers following behind the captain were not much stronger. Many of them were still shaking slightly, and some of them even had gauze wrapped around their hands stained red with blood. Most of them had their uniforms in tatters.

Not only Leah saw this, but the people around also saw it. Many of them simply peeled the boiled eggs and stuffed them directly into the soldiers' mouths, and raised their wine bowls to their mouths.

The village elders unceremoniously held the wine bowls to the captain's mouth and said, "Look at you. You were so strong when you were carrying sandbags and stones, but now you can't even hold a bowl?"

Looking at the scene in front of her, Leah couldn't help but smile and shook her head. It seemed that the villagers were grateful for their help in resolving the flood.

Seeing this scene, Leah felt relieved. The slogan of "Soldiers and Civilians are One Family" has not changed, and these soldiers are serving the people well.

After watching for a while, Leah simply led the others out of the crowd.

After leaving the crowd, Liya asked the magistrate again: "Is this flood serious enough to be a disaster?"

The magistrate shook his head and replied, "Your Majesty, this flood is not very serious. Compared with floods in previous years, it can even be said to be very minor, so minor that even the local authorities did not record it. The impact on people's lives cannot be said to be completely non-existent, but it is only minimal."

Leah hummed, and as she walked towards the river bank, she said, "Very slight, but it still has an impact. You can't say there is no impact at all, right?"

The magistrate replied, "Your Majesty, please understand. After this flood, this year's harvest will definitely be affected, but there is plenty of food in the county and township warehouses, and the people will definitely not starve.

"Besides that, it is likely that those workshops will inevitably be affected, and it is unavoidable that they will stop working for a few days. However, the court has policies for this situation, and will reduce or exempt certain taxes for those workshops affected, so that the livelihoods of the people will not be affected in the end."

Leah hummed, nodded, and led the way toward the embankment.

Although the river water had receded at this time, it was still turbid, like yellow soup, and the embankment was extremely muddy. One could only walk slowly, taking one deep step and one shallow step.

Leah was quite satisfied.

She had sent people to investigate the information of this county magistrate, and he was promoted step by step from the common people. The Wu Dynasty had only been established for a short time, and it was not easy to train grassroots officials. In many cases, they could only make do with what they had.

Fortunately, under the clear political situation of Wu State, these scholars did not lose their ambitions and passion, and knew how to consider the people in everything.

If it were not for this, Leah would not have followed the county magistrate to the riverbank with a few female officials.

After walking around the river bank, Liya let out a long breath and said, "Okay, I've kept you here for so long, and I don't know how much of your work has been delayed. Let's go back to the county town now."

There is no way to solve the problem of floods in modern times, especially the typhoons in the Jiangnan area. They come every year, dozens of times a year, which is very annoying. So as long as Leah really sees these people doing something, she will not blame them.

Hearing what Liya said, the county magistrate also breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that His Majesty finally knew to return to the city. If he kept delaying like this, the backlog of official duties would probably tire him to death!

After knowing that the flood disaster could be solved quickly, Liya left here. However, not long after, Liya said to the air inexplicably: "Have you checked everything?"

After Liya finished speaking, the Jinyiwei envoy Liu Zhiyong beside her immediately knelt on one knee in front of Liya.

Chapter 230: Overtime, I volunteered?

"Your Majesty, we have already investigated everything. Liu Xianpeng, the magistrate of Yongcheng, embezzled more than 1,300 taels of silver. The rest included calligraphy and paintings, antiques, and other things that cannot be counted for now."

Liya snorted coldly and said, "Let's go and meet this county magistrate. I want to see how many heads he has!"

More than 1,300 taels of silver are actually nothing.

Compared with those who easily make hundreds of thousands or millions, that is simply not enough for an honest official.

But according to the laws of the Wu State, if you are greedy, you are greedy. The more than 1,300 taels of silver are enough to send County Magistrate Liu Xianpeng to the execution ground.

The Jinyiwei was still reporting Liu Xianpeng's information to Liya: "Liu Xianpeng, his ancestral home is Wuwei, he was born in 29 BC, in 22 BC, both his parents died, he grew up eating at other people's homes."

"In 1 BC, after Liu Xianpeng learned that Your Majesty had raised an army, he took the initiative to join the army and participated in dozens of battles, large and small, until he retired due to injury after the war against Jiaozhi."

"According to the provisions of the "Wu Guo Law·Military Law·Retirement", Liu Xianpeng was placed in the Yongcheng County Office after his retirement, serving as the commander of the Yongcheng County Police Uniform Guard. He subsequently solved many cases and was promoted to the magistrate of Yongcheng County in the 19th year of the Holy Emperor."

"Before this, Liu Xianpeng had no record of corruption. When he first took office, he was very clean and never accepted any banquets. The root of his change was that he married a wife in the first month of the tenth year of the Saint Emperor."

"According to the report from the Jinyiwei, Liu Xianpeng's wife is the daughter of Gao Dajin, a local wealthy man. It was after Liu Xianpeng married Gao Dajin that he became close to him. He used his position to help Gao Dajin many times, and all the money he embezzled was given to Liu Xianpeng by Gao Dajin for various reasons after he got the favor.

The remaining 800 taels were all received by Liu Xianpeng’s wife.”

"The Yongcheng Patrol Censorate and the Guide Prefecture Patrol Censorate summoned Liu Xianpeng for questioning, but Liu Xianpeng insisted that the favors he had provided to Gao Dajin were within the scope of the Wu Kingdom Law, and that accepting money from Gao Dajin could not be considered corruption."

"In addition, Liu Xianpeng's attitude in the Yongcheng Patrol Censorate and the Guide Prefecture Patrol Censorate was extremely arrogant and bad. He claimed that he had fought beside Your Majesty in the bloody battles to defeat the enemy, but now he is suspected of corruption by the Patrol Censorate. He has shouted several times that he wants to go to the capital to seek justice."

"It is precisely because of this concern that the inspection censors in Yongcheng and Guide Prefecture have been holding back, and have only asked the Jinyiwei stationed in Yongcheng to help collect evidence of Liu Xianpeng's corruption.

Liya hummed expressionlessly, and then asked, "What about Gao Dajin?"

The Jinyiwei bowed and said, "Gao Dajin, his ancestral home is Yongcheng, and he was born in 38 BC. Gao Dajin's ancestors once had a Jinshi, and they can be said to have been farmers and scholars for generations. His family is quite wealthy, and after several generations of accumulation, they have a lot of land."

"Before your majesty's troops entered Guide Prefecture, Gao Dajin took the initiative to sell all his family's land to tenants. When the tenants had no surplus food, Gao Dajin took the initiative to lend money to them without charging interest. For a time, he was known as a kind man. Because of this, Gao Dajin escaped a disaster."

"After marrying his daughter to Liu Xianpeng, Gao Dajin started a workshop. In addition, Gao Dajin proposed to change the working hours from four hours to five hours, and to pay double wages for the extra hour."

"With Gao Dajin taking the lead, other workshops in Yongcheng have also begun to respond. In addition, Liu Xianpeng is also preparing to submit a petition to carry out this matter. Now the conflict between the people of Yongcheng and the workshops is very deep."

Hearing this, Leah's face gradually became gloomy. She sneered and said nothing more.

I have to admit that Gao Dajin's move was indeed very clever.

Does the court agree or disagree with this approach?

Agreeing means that the court has made a concession.

Capitalists have always been like this. As long as you give them a little room to maneuver, they will dare to turn it into a huge hole.

Once the court made concessions and agreed to extend working hours by increasing wages, they would then find ways to take up more rest time.

If the imperial court makes concessions again, they will probably find a way to reduce wages and turn overtime with double wages into free overtime. The next step is to take up more of the workers' rest time. Then, they will reach out to the imperial court.

The problem is that if the court does not agree with Gao Dajin and Liu Xianpeng's proposal, they will change their attitude.

Look, we are all willing to increase our wages, but the court disagrees. The court does not allow you to earn more money, so you can't blame us.

What is affected is the image of the imperial court in the hearts of the people.

But if you think about it from another perspective, you will understand what kind of people these capitalists are like.

Why should we use double wages to induce workers to increase their working hours?

Because this can save labor costs and compress the same amount of work onto fewer workers.

What’s even more fucked up is that this seemingly fair way of playing is tantamount to chronic bloodletting for the imperial court.

The same workload could support 100 workers, but after implementing overtime, it can only support 80 workers. What about the extra 20 workers?

Do the capitalists care about the life and death of these twenty workers?

Of course not!

Everything was masked by the higher incomes of the eighty workers.

The eighty workers whose incomes have increased will loyally support this overtime system, and by the way, they will mock the twenty workers who have been abandoned. They will even openly accuse the twenty workers of having no ambition and destiny of being a layman forever, and never having a good life in this lifetime.

Of course, the existence of capitalists is not entirely useless. Apart from sucking blood, capitalists are still somewhat useful in promoting productivity.

Leah had never thought of killing all capitalists with one blow, but those capitalists who wanted to ride on the throne of the court had to be killed with one blow.

If we don't beat them to death, these bastards will become more and more daring. They will reach out to the last penny in the pockets of the people, they will reach out to the court, and they will also throw all the dirty water on the court.

It was not until they arrived at Yongcheng County that Liya asked, "Are you ready?"

The Jinyiwei bowed and replied, "Your Majesty, everything is ready. Our men are already lurking around the county government office, and we are also ready near Gao Dajin's home. A thousand guards have also entered the city."

Chapter 231 Capital Operation

Leah nodded, and led the way towards the county government office. When she arrived in front of the government office, she picked up the drumstick and started beating the drum to protest grievances.

To be honest, the Wu State's Drum of Complaint was more of a decoration.

Although the county magistrate is the head of a county, he is no longer responsible for money and grain, nor for criminal law, corvee labor and other messy matters. He is more in charge of the government affairs of the entire county.

As for those who want to seek justice or report a crime, they usually go directly to the police and security departments. No one would go to the county government to complain.

So, when Leah banged the drum of complaint loudly, the entire Yongcheng County government office was alarmed. The servants and soldiers hurried out to take up their posts. County Magistrate Liu Xianpeng also hurriedly changed into his official uniform and began to prepare to go to court.

Just after the gavel was struck, before he could ask who was in the hall, Liu Xianpeng, the famous county magistrate in Yongcheng County, came running down from the hall, ran to Liya, knelt down and shouted, "Your Majesty, why are you here!"

Since he knew what I looked like, it meant that this guy had indeed been following me all the time, and Leah actually had some impression of his appearance, so maybe he was my personal soldier back then.

But when she thought about the fact that the child she had brought up had done such a thing, Leah felt very disappointed and angry.

Leah didn't look at him, but walked to Liu Xianpeng's original seat and sat down.

"Do you know why I beat this drum of complaint?"

"I don't know." Liu Xianpeng shook his head quickly.

Liya looked at Liu Xianpeng below and asked, "You have made contributions and should have received many rewards. You can't fight in the war anymore. The court has placed you in the local area as the commander of the police uniform guard. Liu Xianpeng, I want to ask you, has the court treated you unfairly?"

Liu Xianpeng quickly shook his head. Judging from the way Her Majesty was beating the drum to complain, it was obviously his fault. However, he had no idea where he had done wrong.

Liya snorted coldly and said, "Well, since the court has not treated you unfairly, let me ask you, have you married a wife? Is your father-in-law called Gao Dajin?"

Liu Xianpeng looked at Liya in surprise and said in surprise: "How did your majesty know this? Thanks to your majesty's great blessing, my father-in-law's family has been farming and studying for generations, and my wife is also beautiful and educated. I am so happy to marry such a wife that my family's ancestral graves will be filled with smoke."

Seeing this guy's silly look, Leah was almost laughing at his stupidity.

"I want to ask you, are you going to submit a petition to allow the workshop owner to extend the workers' working hours by increasing their wages?"

Liu Xianpeng answered blankly: "Yes, Your Majesty, how did you know? Let's not talk about what those workshop owners think. At least this will allow the workers to earn more money and buy two more pieces of meat for the children. Isn't this good?"

"By the way, it was my father-in-law who thought of this, fortunately..." Having said this, Liu Xianpeng suddenly stopped.

Liya sneered and said, "Fortunately? Go on, I'm waiting to hear it!"

Liu Xianpeng thought that he was a little naive, but that was only in front of Your Majesty. I am not stupid.

Liu Xianpeng did not continue talking, but asked tentatively: "Your Majesty, is there something wrong here?"

Liya sneered and said, "What's wrong? There's something wrong with this whole thing, and you, an idiot, can't you see it at all?"

From the files retrieved along the way, it can be seen that if we talk about corruption and harming the people, Liu Xianpeng is not really one of them. This idiot has not even violated the laws of the Wu State.

This guy is just a brainless idiot, and Gao Dajin treats him like a monkey.

The key point is that the monkey has not yet realized how he was played, and even thinks he is a good official who is pleading for the people.

Liya said: "Have you heard the story of the oil seller? You should also know that the more skilled the workers are, the more skilled they are in producing things and the faster they can produce them."

"The essence of overtime is to use fewer workers to complete production tasks that would otherwise require more people, thereby saving labor costs."

"Let me ask you again, when everyone is used to working overtime, what should people who don't want to work overtime or can't work overtime for various reasons do?"

"Also, you idiot, can't you think about why I set a four-hour working schedule in the first place?"