At the beginning, I became a county magistrate with greed of 500 million. The empress asked me to be

"Please listen to what I have to say. Xia Yun is the current governor of Zhejiang and Southern Zhili, and a first-rank minister of the imperial court. We must not confront him head-on."

"Xia Yun wants to get disaster relief food from the wealthy merchants in Ningdu City, right? We will just give it to him."

Wang Dechang looked leisurely in the direction of the governor's office and spoke calmly.

Everyone in the hall quickly quieted down again, but an expression of disbelief appeared on their faces.

Everyone present knew that this afternoon, in addition to announcing the policy of allocating land tax to each household, Xia Yun also ordered all wealthy businessmen in the city to donate a sum of food for disaster relief.

If they wanted to make friends, they would never show up at Wang Dechang's house.

"Old Master, what do you mean by that? Are we just going to bow down to Xia Yun?"

Among the wealthy businessmen present, a middle-aged man dressed in red silk and satin spoke with obvious reluctance.

"Haha, you don't have to worry."

Wang Dechang laughed when he saw that everyone had misunderstood his meaning.

"Of course we have to give him food, otherwise he will be charged with treason, but he has to come and get the food himself."

"If Xia Yun is sensible, it would be fine if I gave him tens of thousands of taels of silver. Otherwise, I will personally write to the court to accuse him of bullying the people and harming Nanzhili!"

As soon as Wang Dechang finished speaking, a shrewd and deep look suddenly appeared in his dry pupils!

The implication of his words foreshadows the arrival of a conspiracy.

When everyone present heard this, a look of sudden enlightenment appeared on their faces.

"Old Master is brilliant!"

"Xia Yun is only in his early twenties. Even if he has some scheming, it will be in vain in front of the old master."

"We are waiting for good news from the old master!"

In the lobby, a group of wealthy businessmen began to praise Wang Dechang, and the scene became very lively for a while.

……

Ten p.m.

After several hours of large-scale interrogation organized by Gu He, all the crimes confessed by officials above the sixth rank in Ningdu City were thoroughly investigated.

The circumstances of most of these cases are not much different from those described in the indictment.

After Gu He reported the situation of these officials to Xia Yun.

Xia Yun did fulfill his promise and gave lenient sentences to all those officials who voluntarily confessed their guilt.

Among them, about thirty officials were not found guilty of serious corruption, so Xia Yun only confiscated all the money they had embezzled and then retained their original posts.

Among them, Xia Yun also did not kill more than a dozen people whose corruption was more serious.

All they did was confiscate their property, remove them from office and send them back to their hometowns.

All in all, when Xia Yun first arrived in Nanzhili, he showed rare kindness.

However, there are also a few dozen officials whose crimes that the CCP admitted to in their confessions were almost harmless and did not even meet the standards of corruption cases.

There is no doubt that these people deliberately concealed the facts of their corruption, bribery and various crimes.

However, Xia Yun was not in a hurry to deal with these people.

He also knew that the water in Ningdu City was deep, and it would be difficult to uproot these people in a short period of time.

"Master Gu, write a letter immediately and send it to the court, asking the court to send a group of young officials to Ningdu City to take up their posts as soon as possible."

After the investigation of the officials' confessions was completed, Xia Yun immediately issued an order.

After all, more than a dozen officials were dismissed from office at once. If they were not replaced as soon as possible, it would inevitably affect the operation of the officialdom in Southern Zhili.

"Yes, sir, I'll do it right away!"

Gu He nodded, turned around and was about to leave Xia Yun.

However, at this moment, Xia Yun's voice suddenly came from behind Gu He.

"Master Gu, you still have two days."

Xia Yun's voice was very calm, but at this moment, anyone who was not a fool could hear the coldness in Xia Yun's words.

Gu He was stunned immediately.

He remembered that last night in Zhangjia Village, Xia Yun had said that he would give him three more days to think carefully about whether he should take the initiative to explain his problem.

Thinking of this, a sweat broke out on Gu He's forehead again.

Having served as an official in Nanzhili for many years, it was naturally impossible for him to be clean, especially when he was an official under Su Chen in the past, he was involved in many corruption and crimes.

Gu He stopped and quickly fell into struggle and hesitation.

Fortunately, at this time, Xia Yun spoke again, which calmed his heart a little.

"Master Gu, go do your work first. I will be waiting for you here."

As Xia Yun finished speaking, Gu He felt a little relieved.

"Okay, my lord."

Gu He nodded in response, and soon left the governor's court.

As soon as Gu He left, Xu Wan'er appeared in the court.

"Sir, we just received news from a group of wealthy merchants in Ningdu City. They expressed their willingness to donate some food for disaster relief."

Xu Wan'er came to Xia Yu with the latest news.

Hearing this, Xia Yun raised his eyebrows on the spot.

"Those guys are so cooperative?"

The development of the matter was slightly beyond Xia Yun's expectations.

He originally thought that the wealthy businessmen in Ningdu City would most likely choose to resist after learning that they had to hand over a sum of food for disaster relief.

I didn't expect them to be so cooperative.

"From the news...it is indeed the case."

Xu Wan'er nodded hesitantly. This matter also made him feel a little unbelievable.

But then he reported another piece of news.

"Retired Wang Dechang has sent you an invitation, hoping that you can come to the palace in person to discuss the matter of disaster relief grain and funds."

Wang Dechang?

Who is this person?

Xia Yun frowned. He didn't seem to have any impression of this name in his memory.

"Wang Dechang was the Grand Tutor during the reign of the previous emperor. He was entrusted with important tasks by the previous emperor. After the current emperor ascended the throne, he retired and returned to Ningdu City."

Xu Wan'er saw the confusion in Xia Yun's heart and immediately began to explain.

Xia Yun quickly connected the two things together, and a gleam of brilliance suddenly flashed in his eyes.

"Interesting, a retired old master wants to talk to me about disaster relief grain funds."

Xia Yun stood up with a smile.

There was no trace of surprise in his mind anymore.

Obviously, behind Wang Dechang's invitation to him to visit the palace, it must be those wealthy businessmen in Ningdu City who found him!

"Sir, what should we do now?"

Xu Wan'er asked from the side.

"Ah, we just arrived. Since they want to treat us to a meal, of course we have to go."

A slight sneer appeared on Xia Yun's lips.

As the saying goes, if you don't enter the tiger's den, you won't get the tiger's cubs.

He wanted to see what tricks Wang Dechang was trying to play on him!