Chapter 895 Reform Pilot!

Zhang Tingzhong, who was very proud of his achievements in Antai County, was very surprised to hear Ye Mingsheng's question. He didn't understand what Ye Mingsheng meant...

After thinking quickly for a moment, Zhang Tingzhong still couldn't figure it out. Just when he was about to say some meaningless official words like Ye Mingsheng loved the people like his own children and was close to the common people, Ye Mingsheng asked his personal guard to take a stack of files and hand them to Zhang Tingzhong.

"Open it and have a look when we leave later!"

Looking at the stack of files handed over, Zhang Tingzhong had a bad feeling, but he still nodded and took the files respectfully.

After doing all this, Ye Mingsheng looked Zhang Tingzhong up and down and said:
"You are a capable and competent official!"

After saying this, Ye Mingsheng turned around and led his team away without saying anything else. Watching Ye Mingsheng's departing back, Zhang Tingzhong's uneasiness gradually increased. Until Ye Mingsheng's cavalry gradually disappeared in the horizon, Zhang Tingzhong slowly withdrew his gaze and looked at the file in his hand.

After hesitating for a moment, Zhang Tingzhong opened the file. His expression changed after the first glance at the file, and his face turned pale after looking at it a few more times.

These files were clearly evidence of Zhang Tingzhong’s illegal crimes. Although he had done a lot of good things for the people in Antai County during those years and made certain contributions to improving people’s well-being...
However, while working, Zhang Tingzhong did not forget to seek benefits for himself. He accepted gold and silver from some merchants, took three concubines, and was obsessed with power and liked to run for office. In order to add burden to himself, he also gave many gifts to his superiors.

Because the Fengwu Army had been cracking down on corruption, Zhang Tingzhong felt as if he had fallen into an icy cave when he saw the evidence of his crimes. It seemed as if the people from the Coordination Office and the Censorate would arrest him in the next second, hold a public trial, confiscate his property, and execute him!

However, Zhang Tingzhong is also a smart man, and he quickly understood what Ye Mingsheng meant!
If he guessed correctly, Ye Mingsheng came here today to inspect him. If his performance was satisfactory, he could continue to do so. If not, then what awaits him might be imprisonment!
Thinking of this, Zhang Tingzhong couldn't help but recall Ye Mingsheng's words, "You are a capable official!"

At that time, Zhang Tingzhong had not figured out what Ye Mingsheng meant by this sentence. He thought that Ye Mingsheng was praising him and was a little complacent. But now it seems that this is a suspended sentence given to him by the Marshal. Judging from the Marshal's attitude today, it seems that he will not be killed by the sword or beheaded!

Thinking of this, Zhang Tingzhong couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, but he also understood that although the Marshal didn't do anything to him now, it didn't mean that the Marshal would condone him to continue breaking the law and committing crimes!

Thinking of this, Zhang Tingzhong could not help but secretly make up his mind to donate all the bribes he had received as soon as he returned, and be an honest official in the future...

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At night, Ye Mingsheng led his personal guard camp back to Yuyang Prefecture.

Lying in bed late at night, Ye Mingsheng couldn't help recalling what he had seen and heard in Antai County. This was not his first time to come to Antai County. He had been to Antai County once when he led his troops into the pass. Today was his second time to come to Antai County.

When he first came to Antai County, due to Zhao Fuqu's tyranny and extortion, except for a dozen landlords and gentry, more than 90% of the people in Antai County lived in poverty. The clothes of the common people were almost all patched, and everyone looked gloomy.
Beggars begging for food can be seen everywhere on the streets, and there are even many people selling their children. The whole county gives people a feeling of desolation and depression.

Ye Mingsheng will never forget that scene, and this is also the reason why he made up his mind to implement the new policy in Youyan.

More than three years later, what he saw in Antai County was prosperity. There were no people selling their children on the streets, and even the beggars were only one or two sporadically.

Although people's lives were still not very affluent, half of the people on the street had changed into clothes without pudding. The dilapidated and depressed county town became bustling again. There were smiles on people's faces and a glimmer of hope in their expressions.

Although it is a bit exaggerated to describe such a change as earth-shaking, Ye Mingsheng also feels that Zhang Tingzhong has brought very positive changes to Antai County·····························

This positive change was also the important reason why Ye Mingsheng decided to give him a chance to reform!

A month ago, during the joint operation of the Censorate and the Coordination Office to eliminate the remaining influence of the Gu family, the Censorate discovered from the confession of an official that Zhang Tingzhong had given him 100 taels of silver.

Although the Fengwu Army had improved its welfare benefits for officials a lot, one hundred taels of silver was still very valuable, enough to support ten families for a year. Zhang Tingzhong's annual salary plus bonus was just this amount, so Zhang Tingzhong gave out one hundred taels of silver right away, which attracted the attention of the Censor.

Following this line of investigation, the Censorate also found out that Zhang Tingzhong had accepted bribes from some businessmen during the development and construction of Antai County.

At this point, it was actually very simple. According to the procedure, the Censor General and the Governor General would arrest Zhang Tingzhong together and then conduct a more detailed interrogation.

However, because Zhang Tingzhong had made great achievements in his work in Antai County, the Governor Liu Zhengyue had originally planned to promote him to the position of counselor of the Provincial Government. Unexpectedly, such a thing happened.

Liu Zhengyue is a person who values ​​talents. He believes that Youyan still has a lot of work to do, and he needs these talented subordinates to help him implement the new policy. He has also inspected the work in Antai County before. After seeing the changes in Antai County, he also admired Zhang Tingzhong's ability and talent very much.

Therefore, his opinion was that it was not easy to train an official with outstanding ability, no one is perfect, and Zhang Tingzhong did a very good job in Antai County, and the people of Antai loved him very much, so he suggested whether they could consider comprehensively and give Zhang Tingzhong a lighter sentence...
Murong Hui, the governor of Youyan, disagreed with Liu Zhengyue's opinion. He believed that merits were merits and faults were faults, and the two could not be confused or offset, so he insisted on arresting Zhang Tingzhong. Liu Zhengyue originally thought that since he, the governor, had come forward to plead for mercy, Murong Hui would at least give him a favor and allow Zhang Tingzhong to continue to serve in the government.

But he didn't expect that Murong Hui would directly insult him and leave him no wiggle room at all. So Liu Zhengyue was very angry and had some unpleasantness with Murong Hui.

The governor is the highest administrative chief of a province, and the provincial judge is the highest judicial chief of a province. They are both high-ranking officials in the Fengwu Army. Moreover, they are under the nose of Ye Mingsheng of Youyan, so this matter also reached Ye Mingsheng's ears.

Ye Mingsheng was also a little curious about who this Zhang Tingzhong was and how he could make his governor and censor compete for him!

Just at this time, in order to formulate a tax reform plan, Ye Mingsheng planned to inspect the local area to see the actual situation.

And because a war is going on now and Ye Mingsheng needs to stay at the center to make important decisions at all times, it is best not to go too far. Therefore, Ye Mingsheng finally decided to only inspect within Youyan.

So Ye Mingsheng planned to go to Antai County for an on-site visit. However, Ye Mingsheng’s plan was opposed by the security department.
The security department believed that Antai County was located at the junction of Youyan and Yunbing, and it would be easy for the Supervisory Office spies in Yunbing to infiltrate. So if they knew that Ye Mingsheng was going to inspect Antai County, they would definitely plan an assassination. Therefore, they hoped that Ye Mingsheng's son would not go to Antai County.

Ye Mingsheng severely criticized the security department's idea. He, Ye Mingsheng, was a cavalry general. In his eyes, thousands of troops were nothing but a trivial matter. If he was scared by a few killers and petty thieves and dared not to inspect, wouldn't it be a laughing stock and make the world laugh if it got out?

What's more, Jinyang has been captured, so why did the Coordination Office allow the killers from the Supervisory Office to run so rampant?
Seeing that they could not change Ye Mingsheng's attention, Huo San and Ji Xian immediately organized an action and carried out a large-scale sweep of the remaining Supervisory Department personnel in Yunbing and Youyan, to ensure that Ye Mingsheng would not be disturbed during the inspection!

To be honest, although he decided to go to Antai County to inspect and see what Zhang Tingzhong was capable of, Ye Mingsheng's original intention was to uphold the rules and handle matters impartially.

But after seeing the changes in Antai County, Ye Mingsheng changed his mind and decided to give Zhang Tingzhong a chance!
It’s not that Ye Mingsheng intentionally favors corrupt officials, but in Ye Mingsheng’s view, selecting officials is not about selecting saints. Others don’t say that he, Ye, became the general of Fengzhou because he gave gifts to others, which led to his future success. If he hadn’t given gifts in the beginning, I’m afraid there would be no Marshal Ye now...
As the saying goes, no one is perfect, and there will be no fish in clear water. If you can really do your job very well, even if you have some minor problems, Ye Mingsheng can turn a blind eye and tolerate your behavior for the sake of the overall situation.

So today Ye Mingsheng gave Zhang Tingzhong a chance to reform himself. If Zhang Tingzhong could voluntarily hand over the bribes he received from merchants within one month, then Ye Mingsheng would consider letting him go, letting the matter come to an end, and giving him an important pilot task.

But if Zhang Tingzhong is greedy for money and thinks that the matter will just pass, then Ye Mingsheng will have to borrow his head to enforce the law.

Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng took out a memorial and read it carefully. This was the tax reform plan he had prepared, although reason told Ye Mingsheng that now was not a good time to implement this plan.

The power of the aristocratic families is still very strong, and the resistance to the reform of this plan will be unprecedentedly strong. However, thinking of the changes that will be brought about by the success of this plan, Ye Mingsheng still can't help but want to give it a try, at least to do a pilot to see how it works, and also to test the reaction of the aristocratic families to this·························
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On the night of March 29, the moon was dark and the wind was strong
On the city wall of Pingyang City, Yang Chongqing and Tang Peng fought side by side, looking at the Fengwu Army camp in the distance.

After a long silence, Tang Peng sighed and said helplessly:

"Although the Fengwu Army's logistics supply cannot keep up with the help of the Cumans, the current situation shows that the Fengwu Army is far from running out of ammunition and food. Now is not the best opportunity for us to counterattack. We should wait!"

Listening to Tang Peng's words, Yang Chongqing's eyes also revealed a hint of helplessness, but he did not complain like Tang Peng, but spoke in a deep voice:

"We can wait here, but the court can't wait any longer! Minister Zhang of the Ministry of Revenue, Minister Feng of the Ministry of Rites and others are still in Luoan, but their families have already evacuated to Sichuan and Shu. The pressure on the Prime Minister and Minister Shangguan is also very great!"

"As long as we can win a great victory in Pingyang and stop the enemy's momentum of advancing, the situation in the court will be greatly improved!"

Listening to Yang Chongqing's speech, Tang Peng nodded silently. In fact, he understood all these principles, but he was still a little unwilling. This was their only chance now. If this opportunity failed, the entire situation would be irreversible, and the Luoan court would completely enter the countdown.

Yang Chongqing looked up at the moon covered by dark clouds, a smile appeared on his face and he said:

"It's a dark and windy night, a time for murder and arson! Notify the people below to begin the counterattack in one hour!"

Upon hearing this, Tang Peng nodded and left. After leaving, Tang Peng looked at Yang Chongqing in the Fengwu Army camp with an extremely serious expression.

Seven days ago, more than 10,000 Cuman light cavalrymen divided into several groups and headed south to Yunbing. Although these Cuman cavalrymen did not carry any siege weapons and did not pose much threat to the city, their burning, killing and looting along the way caused great harm to the people of Yunbing and affected the logistics supply of the Fengwu Army in Pingyang!

Affected by this, the firepower output of the Fengwu Army was also affected. The artillery shells that had been fired continuously in the past began to slowly decrease. Although this was good news for Yang Chongqing, for some reason, Yang Chongqing had a bad premonition...
(End of this chapter)