At the beginning, Qin Shi Huang traveled to my home

"Senior Zhang Heng, you are truly amazing," Li Wu gave Zhang Heng a thumbs up. He was simply a genius among geniuses.

Alas, the imperial examination at that time, how should I put it, was not the college entrance examination as we think of it in later generations. It was much more difficult than the college entrance examination.

Take the test papers they write for example, the requirements for the paper surface are very high, and there cannot be any typos.

If they are asked to copy 2,000 words, they will make a lot of mistakes and make corrections. It is very rare for others to write without making a single mistake and to write neatly.

Not to mention the imperial examination in the second year of Jiayou, which happened only once in a thousand years.

"Little immortal, actually I'm not that great," Zhang Heng decided to be humble, with the corners of his mouth almost flying to the sky. He felt that what the little immortal said was absolutely right.

He is still very confident.

Seeing Zhang Heng's expression, Li Wu had nothing else to say but to laugh along.

"At that time, Senior Zhang Heng, before you had even secured your title of top scholar, you were sent to Huzhou to serve as a magistrate.

When others take office, they bring their advisors with them. But it is different for you, Senior Zhang Heng. You take office with you three boxes of account books.

In your first month on the job, you discover a big problem.

The Ministry of War's roster stated that there were 100,000 garrison troops, but in reality only 70,000 were on duty.

All the military pay for the remaining 30,000 men was eaten up.

The grain transport office was even more outrageous. For every ten ships of grain transported, they reported that fifteen ships were lost, and the extra five ships all went into the pockets of corrupt officials.

So, Senior Zhang Heng, you wrote a memorial overnight, proposing three ruthless measures.

The first annual budget method: All states and counties across the country must submit their revenue and expenditure budgets for the next year by the end of the year.

The second four-column inventory check should be divided into four accounts with clear records of old inventory, new income, expenditure items, and current balance.

Third, anyone who dares to make false reports will be dismissed and investigated without any ambiguity.

However, these operations obviously affected the interests of some people.

The officials who were drinking tea in the Sansi Yamen were jumping around anxiously. "Li Wu looked at Zhang Heng and said, not bad, not bad, go up and do something big.

How to say it? In fact, corruption was not only found in Huzhou where Zhang Heng was in office. It happened in many places. Some were done secretly, while others were exposed.

Even within a single family, corruption can occur. How can we put an end to this kind of thing? It can never be eradicated.

Wang Wei and the other two did not look very happy. They hated corruption very much.

In front of the sky curtain, the emperor and the people were the most angry. The people felt that the money taken by the corrupt officials was taken from them, while the emperor felt that the corrupt officials were stealing his money.

Who is the emperor? He is the master of the world. Everything in the world belongs to him, so corrupt officials are just stealing his money.

That was extremely infuriating, and in every dynasty, the punishment for corruption was relatively severe.

This was particularly serious in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, said that if he knew who dared to engage in corruption, once he found out, he would skin the person alive and exterminate his entire clan!

No tolerance!!!

Zhu Yuanzhang hated corruption the most.

In the barrage, those corrupt officials were trembling with fear when they saw Zhu Yuanzhang’s speech. Fortunately, fortunately, the murderer was not the emperor of their dynasty, otherwise it would be too scary.

But the people applauded and thought that all the corrupt officials deserved to die. They did not sympathize with any of them and felt that their deaths were not tragic enough.

Sky

"Heh," Zhang Heng sneered.

"Well, actually, it's hard to say about matters like corrupt officials. There were corrupt officials in our later generations as well, which you don't know. They bought hundreds of houses. They were extremely greedy. Moreover, they bought all the most expensive houses in the best locations. I dare not even imagine how much they had embezzled. I only found out after it was investigated later," Li Wu hissed.

If this is not exposed, who would know?

The three of them widened their eyes. They never expected that corruption would be so serious in later generations. There were hundreds of houses, some in the best and most expensive locations. They didn’t dare to imagine how much had been embezzled.

Some people work hard and worry a lot all their lives but still cannot buy a house, while some people embezzle and buy hundreds of houses casually. What a life.

When the old people in front of the sky curtain heard this, they cursed the corrupt officials in the barrage. They had to curse them, especially the people, who hated corrupt officials the most. Those corrupt officials embezzled their money and made their lives so difficult, and forced many lives to death.

“So, from ancient times to the present, corruption is something that will never disappear, because as long as one is a human being, he or she has desires, either for money or for power. However, these two things are indeed good things, so who doesn’t want them?

Even a saint needs it. Without money, what will you eat and wear? Don’t tell me that you don’t love money. I don’t believe it. Just having enough is enough.” Li Wu didn’t believe that there were people who didn’t love money. That was because they hadn’t experienced the pain of being penniless.

In the barrage, the saints said that they have never said that they don’t love money. Just like the little immortal said, they need money everywhere in their lives, otherwise what will they eat, drink and live?

But it’s enough to have enough for what you need, and you can’t embezzle!

We cannot do illegal things that harm people's lives.

"Hahaha, what the little immortal said makes sense," Fan Zhongyan laughed. He didn't expect that the little immortal knew such truth. It was rare.

"Of course," Li Wu raised her chin proudly. She was very smart.

Several people laughed again.

“Let me continue to talk about Senior Zhang Heng’s deeds.

You must know that at that time, the imperial guards in the capital falsely reported 30% of their military pay, and your memorial, Senior Zhang Heng, was intended to cut off their source of income.

Not long after, someone from the Censorate began to impeach you, Senior Zhang Heng. Even your hometown accent became a crime.

In short, if you do the slightest thing, it will be magnified infinitely and you will be impeached. But Senior Zhang Heng, don’t be afraid and fight to the end!

He directly retorted in the court, saying that you are counting the people's hard-earned money, which is cleaner than some people counting their own pockets.

Alas, but at that time, Senior Zhang Heng, you were just a rookie, how could you be a match for so many people.

You were exiled to places like Ruzhou and Yingzhou, where you wandered around for ten years.

In fact, this kind of thing has been seen a lot. As long as it damages the interests of certain people, they will be suppressed, demoted, and exiled, no more and no less," Li Wu shrugged innocently. It was too normal. How could they remain indifferent when their interests were touched?

Several people sighed, and many officials in front of the sky curtain also sighed.

That’s true. They wanted to be a good official at first, but later found that it was not so easy. The twists and turns in officialdom made it too difficult.

If you are not careful, you will be doomed, so you have to be cautious with every step, not daring to make a wrong move.

"It was not until the first year of Xining, that is, in 1068 AD, that you, Senior Zhang Heng, were sent to Zhengzhou as the prefect.

Others think this is demotion, but Senior Zhang Heng, you used the provincial government as the on-site command center for measuring land.

Wearing a newly made bamboo hat made by an old farmer, Senior Zhang Heng, you traveled through the twelve counties of Zhengzhou. At the Putian Lake, you stared at the 4,200 hectares of wasteland with shining eyes. These official fields that should have been used to grow corn were actually enclosed as a forbidden feng shui area for the royal cemetery.