Chapter 1270 Inspecting Jingchu!

On September 3, on a road in southern Jingchu, a team of more than 3,000 people was marching westward. Although the team's speed did not seem fast, if you look closely, you can see that the security of the team is very tight and everyone is very vigilant.

In one of the carriages in the team, Ye Mingsheng opened the window curtains and looked at the bumpy road. He couldn't help but ask Song Haibo, who was riding a horse outside the carriage:

"Didn't you tell me that this road is the main road connecting Huainan and Jingchu? Why is it so difficult to travel?"

Facing Ye Mingsheng's question, Song Haibo said helplessly:
"Sir, this road is indeed the main road connecting Jingchu and Jiangnan. From this road, you can go all the way west to Hanyang Prefecture!"

"But this road was built two hundred years ago. At first, there were people responsible for its maintenance, but later on, the road was maintained less and less. In the past few decades, military leaders from all over the country have used their money to expand their armies and prepare for war. No one is willing to spend money on repairing roads!"

"So this is the road for this, but the road conditions will be better in Tongcheng after another thirty miles!"

Hearing what Song Haibo said, Ye Mingsheng shook his head, then lowered the curtains and closed his eyes to rest in the car.

For some reason, Ye Mingsheng at this moment recalled the famous saying throughout the ages: When a country prospers, the people suffer; when a country perishes, the people suffer. He couldn't help but sigh in his heart!
A few days ago, he ended his inspection of Jiangnan and embarked on the journey back to Yijing. According to the pre-planned plan, Ye Mingsheng will go from Jiangnan to Huainan, then from Huainan to Jingchu, and finally from Jingchu to Jiyu, and finally return to Youyan Yijing.

Since setting foot on the land of Jingchu, Ye Mingsheng has also encountered many problems. One of the most critical problems is that the local infrastructure is in serious disrepair...

Infrastructure such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, and reservoirs cannot just be built and then used. You also need to maintain them on a daily basis. If the maintenance is not in place, then due to years of disrepair, the role that these infrastructure can play will become smaller and smaller!
The annual maintenance can be said to be a considerable expense, which is still a huge pressure for local government offices!

Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng also strengthened his determination to lay off employees. Along the way, Ye Mingsheng became more and more aware of the urgency of layoffs!
Although the financial pressure on the Yijing court was great, it still had many means to make money. Even if the situation was bad, it could still rob Peter to repair Paul. In short, it could deal with the most important things, and other things could be discussed later. However, the local government offices did not have so many means. Under Ye Mingsheng's tax reduction and exemption policy, although the vitality of the local economy was released, the local government office's fiscal revenue also decreased a lot accordingly. Although the revenue decreased, the fiscal expenditure did not decrease much, which led to the local government office's expenditure being insufficient to cover its income!
Faced with limited financial revenue, the first thing the local government has to ensure is that the salaries of local staff can be paid. However, there are too many people who rely on the government for their livelihood, so much so that ordinary people have made up a jingle for this: "The deeper the water, the more turtles there are, and the land is full of masters!"

After paying the salaries to these masters, the local government had no money left, which made them powerless to do things like maintaining infrastructure,··················

In Ye Mingsheng's opinion, this is not an isolated case, it can even be said to be a common phenomenon!

Ye Mingsheng believes that this situation must be changed. If it is not resolved, no matter how he reforms it, it will ultimately be nothing but castles in the air!
As long as the redundant people are laid off and the yamen's staff is streamlined, the yamen will be able to lighten its load and have the money and ability to take on more functions!

If you want to lay off employees, you must first determine the candidates for the governor and the provincial judge!
When the Fengwu Army had just conquered Jingchu, considering the stability of Jingchu, Ye Mingsheng appointed Zhao Dongsheng as the governor of Jingchu and Liang Xin as the censor of Jingchu. At the same time, Ye Mingsheng also appointed Ye Pengchao, an official from the General Coordination Office, as the deputy censor!
However, due to the incident of Xu Zhaojie's prison escape, Liang Xin, as the Censor, had to resign and take responsibility. Although Ye Pengchao, as the Deputy Censor, was also responsible for Xu Zhaojie's prison escape, he made great contributions in the task of hunting down Fang She and other remnants of the Zhennan Army and the Thousand Tiger Guards!

Therefore, considering that there were not many available people in the Fengwu Army in Jingchu at that time, Ye Mingsheng appointed Ye Pengchao to temporarily serve as the governor to see the results!

Three months ago, when Ye Mingsheng had just arrived in Qi and Lu, an earthquake struck Hengde in Jingchu. According to the report from the Jingchu Provincial Government, the earthquake was not particularly serious, but it also caused some secondary disasters such as floods and mudslides. Thousands of houses were destroyed and tens of thousands of people were affected.
After the earthquake, Zhao Dongsheng, the then governor of Jingchu, immediately launched rescue and relief operations. However, in the process, there was corruption of disaster relief funds, and some food, cloth and other supplies that should have been in the warehouse disappeared, and Zhao Dongsheng's trusted subordinates were involved in these incidents!

Therefore, after his subordinates were captured by Ye Pengchao and handed over to the Ministry of Justice for trial, Zhao Dongsheng, feeling deeply ashamed, took the initiative to resign. This was also one of the reasons why Ye Mingsheng was able to transfer Sun Xiuquan to Jingchu.

After Sun Xiuquan came to Jingchu, he had some fantasies. But when the news of Ye Mingsheng's thorough investigation of the Sun family reached Jingchu, Sun Xiuquan, knowing that he was powerless to change the situation, became terrified all day long. He finally committed suicide to atone his sins and beg Ye Mingsheng to spare the life of his family!
And with Sun Xiuquan's suicide, the position of Jingchu Governor was vacant again!
In fact, even if Sun Xiuquan did not commit suicide this time, Ye Mingsheng would not continue to let Sun Xiuquan serve as the governor of Jingchu after he dealt with the Sun family. The reason why Ye Mingsheng made this decision at that time was just a stopgap measure to lure the tiger away from the mountain!

This time when he came to Jingchu, Ye Mingsheng's original idea was to reconsider the candidates for the governor, and to evaluate Ye Pengchao's work to see how well Ye Pengchao did his job, whether to directly make him the Jingchu Censor, or to consider other candidates and let Ye Pengchao continue to serve as the Deputy Censor...
(Ye Mingsheng is about to be crowned emperor. What do you think about the name of the country and the reign title? Which name do you think is better? I don’t have any ideas at the moment, so please feel free to give me some advice. I will listen attentively!)
(End of this chapter)