The poorest member of the Imperial Guard, the Empress begged me to embezzle.

"Reporting to Your Excellency, I have come to report this matter."

"After this period of thorough investigation, we have completely identified the potential problems that may occur in all waterways within the territory of our Great Zhou Dynasty in different seasons."

"And which local officials are negligent, lazy, or embezzling funds intended for water conservancy projects."

"Only after truly understanding the situation did I realize just how shocking the construction of water conservancy projects truly was!"

Li Jingtian took a deep breath and said with a solemn expression.

"Is all the information ready?"

A glint of light flashed in Chu Xiu's eyes, and he spoke in a deep and powerful voice.

They're finally about to do something big!

The rewards for doing ordinary positive things are already extremely generous.

The construction of water conservancy projects involves millions of people throughout the Great Zhou Dynasty, so the reward will certainly not disappoint him.

It's even possible that this is what will allow him to reach the Celestial Realm!

"Reporting to the Marquis, everything has been prepared."

"My subordinates divided the data into three categories. The first category is the river conditions."

"The condition of the river is not just about which river is prone to flooding in which season."

"We also conducted an investigation into the existing dikes of our Great Zhou Dynasty."

"Which dike is potentially dangerous and needs to be rebuilt?"

"And which dam can be guaranteed to be safe simply by reinforcing it?"

"Which other river channels need to be dredged and cleared of silt?"

"The second category is a list of local officials who are negligent, lazy, or careless in their duties."

"The third category is a list of local officials who embezzled funds intended for water conservancy projects."

"As for the people behind these local officials, and the powerful families and clans behind them, I haven't started investigating yet."

After considering it for a moment, Li Jingtian said to Chu Xiu.

"Is it that they haven't started investigating yet, or are they afraid to investigate?"

Chu Xiu smiled slightly and looked at Li Jingtian.

"Your Excellency, we dare not investigate."

A bitter smile appeared on Li Jingtian's face as he said with a wry smile.

Let's leave it at that.

Chu Xiu waved his hand and said to Li Jingtian.

He naturally understood what Li Jingtian meant: when it's time to be confused, you should be confused.

If the investigation continues, the entire Great Zhou Dynasty will likely be engulfed in war and fall apart.

His real purpose was to build water conservancy projects to solve the flood problem of the Great Zhou Dynasty, not to plunge the Great Zhou Dynasty into chaos.

As for seizing leverage over powerful and influential families, the idea is to use the evidence at hand to take action against them in the future.

Chu Xiu had never even considered this question.

Because there is no need!

It would be incredibly easy to find fault with powerful and influential families who dared to interfere in water conservancy projects and to take action against them.

These powerful and influential families must have many problems.

Finding just one piece of evidence is enough to completely eradicate them!

"Your Excellency is wise!"

Li Jingtian said with a look of admiration.

He was worried that Chu Xiu, being young and impetuous, would insist on a thorough investigation, causing panic among the powerful families and leading to real problems.

"How many local officials are there in the second and third categories respectively?"

Chu Xiu smiled and asked Li Jingtian.

"Reporting to Your Excellency, the second category of local officials who are negligent, lazy, and careless in their duties consists of nine prefects and thirty-nine county magistrates."

"The third category of local officials who embezzled funds for water conservancy projects involved a total of 31 prefects and 127 county magistrates."

“One hundred and twenty-one officials under the jurisdiction of the prefecture, and four hundred and forty-five officials under the jurisdiction of the county.”

Without hesitation, Li Jingtian said, "Among these local officials, those who have connections with powerful families or are directly from powerful families make up half of them."

Clearly, Li Jingtian already knew these numbers by heart, otherwise he could never have remembered them so clearly.

"Therefore, these people together make up exactly forty prefects and one hundred and sixty-six county magistrates."

"The number of people is not large, less than I expected."

Chu Xiu smiled calmly and said.

Chu Xiu was not surprised by Li Jingtian's mention of prefectural and county officials.

A prefecture typically has six local officials: the prefect, the assistant prefect, the commandant, the chief clerk, the merit officer, and the clerk.

A county typically has six local officials: a county magistrate, a county assistant magistrate, a county commandant, a registrar, a merit officer, and a clerk.

Prefects and magistrates who embezzled funds meant for water conservancy projects naturally couldn't keep all the money for themselves; they also had to share a portion of it with others.

Not all county and prefectural officials have participated; only a portion of them have shared the money, which is already quite good.

The entire Great Zhou Dynasty comprised 105 prefectures and 1180 counties.

There are about 600 counties that are traversed by rivers.

That is nearly half.

However, nearly a quarter of these approximately 600 counties are affected.

This is why Li Jingtian just said it was shocking.

It doesn't even need to be many; if just half of them have problems, how many people will be displaced?

"My lord, I have something else to say, but I'm not sure if I should."

Li Jingtian hesitated for a moment, then cupped his hands in a respectful gesture to Chu Xiu and said.

"But it doesn't matter."

Chu Xiu smiled and looked at Li Jingtian.

"My lord, we need to dredge the waterways and build dikes for our entire Great Zhou Dynasty. Even if some of the waterways and dikes have been under construction by local officials, we still need to reinforce them, which will also require a lot of money."

"Not to mention that forty prefects and one hundred and sixty-six magistrates embezzled a large amount of money intended for water conservancy projects, causing the need to dredge the waterways and build dams in these areas, which has resulted in an extremely alarming amount of money being spent."

"Even if we confiscate the property of all forty prefects and one hundred and sixty-six county magistrates, and take all the money from our Jinyiwei public welfare special fund, it still won't be enough."

"Moreover, half of these forty prefects and one hundred and sixty-six county magistrates are from powerful and influential families."

"At most, we will arrest local officials who are not involved with powerful families and clans, but for those who are involved, we can only make an example of a small number of them."

"Let them know that if they are not from powerful families or have close ties with them, our Embroidered Uniform Guard's blade will not fall on their necks."

"How do we make up for the missing funds?"

Li Jingtian said with a serious expression.

You can rest assured about this issue.

"Isn't the martial arts tournament of the number one manor in the world very timely?"

Chu Xiu said meaningfully.

"My lord, do you mean to use the martial arts tournament of the number one manor in the world as an opportunity to wipe out all the participants in one fell swoop?"

"Should all those in the underworld with businesses and assets have their homes confiscated?"

Upon hearing this, Li Jingtian was stunned for a moment, then his eyes lit up and he said with great joy.

If that's really the case, then the Embroidered Uniform Guard will be able to amass a huge fortune.

The funding for this water conservancy project will be completely secured!

In reality, with Qin Yu, a peerless master previously known as the number one swordsman in the world, in charge, the number one manor in the world had accumulated a vast amount of wealth.

The wealth of the number one manor in the world now undoubtedly belongs to their Imperial Guards.

If Qin Yun hadn't convened this martial arts conference, the Embroidered Uniform Guard wouldn't have had a good excuse to attack the number one manor in the world and so many people in the martial arts world.

But now, they've handed the knife to them willingly. If they don't get rid of them, these people will really think that the Embroidered Uniform Guard is a pushover.