Urban Sims

"The Queen of Heaven has decreed that Tian Zihua, a famous scholar from Qingzhou, who is outstanding in talent and learning, and knowledgeable...characterized by his service to the country, is appointed as the magistrate of ten thousand counties. He will take office immediately and cannot refuse!"

After the eunuch's shrill voice read out the edict, Zhou Ming couldn't laugh or cry, with a look of helplessness on his face.

He originally thought that he could comfortably build his reputation in this imperial capital for a while. However, only a month had passed before the unreasonable Yizhi came over. Listening to the tone above, if he didn't take up the post of Wanxian County Order, I'm afraid I will suffer a loss and be punished with the crime of "resisting the order and disrespecting the order".

Maybe even his head will fall off.

"The society is governed by evil people. How can there be any personal will in the face of monarchy? Absolute freedom can only be exchanged for your head."

Zhou Ming complained in his heart, knowing that he would never be able to disobey the decree issued by Wu Mei's order. No matter who he offended a woman, especially a powerful and petty woman, he would die miserably.

"Brother Zihua, just go ahead. I'm just a small county magistrate. I won't be able to trouble you. Wouldn't it be nice to show your true talents and knowledge so that everyone can be convinced by you?"

Many friends also suggested that Zhou Ming become an official to demonstrate his political talents and silence those who questioned him behind his back.

Zhou Ming thought for a while, whether he was an official for a while, the so-called unity of knowledge and action, and making some practical achievements to show to others, could also once again improve his image in people's minds.

Of course, he will not wallow in the officialdom forever, otherwise he will only sink deeper and deeper and be unable to extricate himself. In a year or two at most, he will find a way to escape.

However, after searching some information and learning some details about Wanxian County, Zhou Ming frowned and went to the palace to meet the Saint that day. In front of Queen Wu Mei, he made a request:

"If the grassroots are to be appointed as the magistrate of Nawan County, the grassroots still need a commitment from the court."

"What promise?" Wu Mei asked with a frown.

"The promise of doing something cheap, no matter what the common people have done, after taking office, as long as the common people have not violated the law, committed corruption, accepted bribes, or neglected their duties... they will not be put in jail or sentenced to death... Otherwise, the common people will never agree and let this happen Magistrate of Wanxian County!"

Zhou Ming got straight to the point.

"Can!"

Queen Wu Mei frowned for a while, thought about it, and agreed to the request.

Because officials who do not violate the law, take bribes, or neglect their duties are basically honest and good officials. If such officials are punished with death, this court may be hopelessly corrupt.

Therefore, Wu Mei felt a little angry that Tian Zihua did not trust the court so much.

After receiving the verbal guarantee from Queen Wu Mei, Zhou Ming breathed a sigh of relief. Three days later, he took a group of people to Wan County, seventy miles west of the imperial capital, to take up his post.

…

Wan County, in the county government hall.

Wearing a black gauze hat and a seventh-grade brown official robe with a pine and crane painted on the chest, he sat on the main seat in the lobby, playing with the token in his hand... Zhou Ming, who was deep in thought, knew that Queen Wu Mei had given him a big gift. problem.

A big problem for being an official.

Where is Wanxian County?

It is close to the county seat of Bianzhou and the imperial capital of Luojing and other power centers. It has been the place where officials have been least willing to take up their posts since ancient times.

Because in Wanxian County, not only are there many aristocratic families and powerful families, but there are also countless people with profound backgrounds living here. There are dozens of royal family members and nobles who are entrusted here.

To describe it in one sentence: In Wanxian County, little flies and big tigers are everywhere. Even an ordinary old man on the street may be the father of a high-ranking official. Throwing a brick at random can hit the palace of a certain prince. The steward.

Therefore, in Wanxian County, where there are as many powerful people as dogs, the county magistrate is not even a kitten. There are not many people who buy the county magistrate's account. When some cases related to powerful people occur, the county magistrate not only cannot control them, but sometimes You have to help cover up the situation and make it a small issue, so as not to lose your reputation when things get big.

In the archives of Wanxian County Government, Zhou Ming saw that unjust and wrongful cases were piled up on the file shelves. He flipped through a few files at random and found that the cases recorded on them were shocking, including the cries of the lower class people and the domineering faces of the upper class dignitaries. , vividly happened before our eyes, making people angry.

The results recorded in these files are not that justice has been upheld and evildoers severely punished. On the contrary, the cries of the people have become more tragic and the arrogance of the powerful has become more arrogant.

It can be said that the people of ten thousand counties live in dire straits; the dignitaries of ten thousand counties live in paradise.

How to relieve the people from hanging, uphold justice, and at the same time restrict and suppress the powerful and make them abide by the law has become a big problem before Zhou Ming.

"The management of a city, from ancient times to the present, is nothing more than public security, sanitation, markets, legal systems, culture and education, and taxation... But this era is essentially an era of human rule. It is impossible to govern the country according to law. We can only Put the easy things first and then the hard ones, start with public security, sanitation, markets and other areas. Once you have achieved results, then consider others."

A few days later.

Zhou Ming, who formulated a "Public Security Management Regulations", invited the most important dignitaries and gentry in Wanxian County to the county government and held a meeting. He said that the public security in Wanxian County was chaotic, and the criminal gangs who cheated and abducted people were even there. There are still many human trafficking phenomena. He has just taken office and wants to improve the public security situation in Wanxian County. He hopes to get the understanding and support of all the gentry...

Zhou Ming's proposal has been supported by the vast majority of people. The public security situation in Wanxian County is indeed bad now. Even the children of wealthy families have been abducted by human traffickers. If we don't improve the public security situation that has deteriorated to the extreme, Even the powerful people in this county live in fear.

In the next three months, Zhou Ming offered high salaries and recruited 500 capable government officials. After a week of training, he launched a vigorous "strike hard" campaign in Wanxian County, targeting Jianghu gangs who collected protection fees and street bullies who bullied the city. Villains, thieves, liars, and traffickers were all targeted for arrest... Thousands of them were arrested, and some of the most heinous criminals were sentenced to death after public trials. Others were sent to labor camps for reeducation through labor.

In Wanxian County, where almost all the lawbreakers were arrested, the public security situation quickly improved greatly, and the county was full of praise.

Even those scoundrels who usually helped the tyrants to do evil and helped the rich and powerful to do all kinds of bad things were also blamed by Zhou Minglian. Dozens of them were executed in public trials, and the people were relieved.

The weak legs of the powerful have been cut off, and the number of unjust and wrongful convictions against the common people has naturally decreased a lot in the past few months.

After basically solving the security problem, Zhou Ming established the Urban Management Bureau, recruited a group of urban management personnel, and was responsible for improving the appearance of the county town, and formulated the "Health Ordinances" and "Traffic Rules".

The main content of the "Health Ordinance" is to require people to pay attention to hygiene, not to urinate or spit anywhere, to clean the door of each house, to throw garbage into special trash cans, to use public toilets to relieve themselves, and to use toilets for defecation. Centralize the treatment, build public bathhouses, encourage people to develop the habit of frequent bathing, etc.

The "Traffic Rules" are aimed at the problem that Wanxian County has a large population, narrow streets, dense flow of people, disorderly movement of people, livestock and vehicles, and frequent congestion. , people walk on sidewalks, intersections, set up traffic control personnel and red and green signs" and other behavioral norms.

When these codes of conduct were first implemented, there was great resistance, and the government officials received a large number of fines for those who broke the red card every day.

However, Zhou Ming and his people endured huge pressure and strictly implemented the "Traffic Rules" for more than a month. The advantages of the "Traffic Rules" finally emerged. The voices of resentment decreased. After enjoying the convenience of smooth traffic, the number of private agreements began to increase. .

Even the imperial capital, which was plagued by traffic congestion, sent officials to check on the situation in Wan County.

Not long after, the "Traffic Rules" that had hardly been revised in the capital city of Luojing were officially implemented in the capital city, and then spread throughout the world.

In addition, Zhou Ming also reorganized the market, standardized commercial activities, personally went to the countryside to guide agricultural production, promoted new agricultural tools to farmers, and provided interest-free loans, allowing poor farmers to use new agricultural tools with higher farming efficiency, no matter how cheap they were. Leasing livestock to them, and repaying the loan after the autumn harvest... With various measures, Wanxian's agricultural output in that year has increased by 12%.

Zhou Ming has achieved very dazzling results in public security, transportation, health, agriculture, and commerce. But in this era, the most important thing is not GDP, but culture and education.

If he has not achieved significant achievements in culture and education, he will still not be able to get the upper evaluation in the performance evaluation.

Zhou Ming had no choice but to spend his own money and call for donations from the upper class to build eight "Hope Primary Schools". Each primary school could accommodate 200 school-age children and waived a considerable part of the tuition fees.

As long as these eight Hope Primary Schools continue to operate for ten years, the illiteracy rate in Wanxian County can be reduced to an astonishing below 90%. The illiteracy rate is as low as that in Tianjiazhuang, Haiping County.

but……

In the end, Zhou Ming only served as the county magistrate for less than a year, and he was asked to resign in front of Queen Wu Mei because of the legal construction. He had offended too many powerful people.

It’s not that Zhou Ming’s ability to judge cases is not good. On the contrary, during the 355 days he took office as the magistrate of Wanxian County, he judged cases impartially, impartially and honestly, delivered justice to 337 victims, and solved 28 murder cases. There was sufficient evidence and every case was solved. It became a solid case.

One of the strange cases called "The Case of the Missing Eighty-seven Girls" was also a major case that shocked the whole country after he led the team to investigate non-stop for more than a month.

In this strange case, Zhou Ming offended a monstrous dignitary that he could not afford to offend.

Because this dignitary is Wu Mei's nephew Wu Sansi.

Wu Sansi was greedy, lustful, cruel and perverted. He was the chief culprit of the "Eighty-Seven Missing Girls" in Wan County. He ordered people to kidnap these girls, most of whom came from wealthy families, to his mansion, and then raped and humiliated them day and night. When you get tired of playing, kill them all! When Zhou Ming led people to find all the girls' bones, he became furious and called out a hundred warriors, intending to kill Zhou Ming and others.

After all these warriors were killed by Li Dazui, and Wu Sansi himself had his leg broken by a kick from Zhou Ming, he captured him, presented conclusive evidence, and brought it to Queen Wu Mei, giving her two choices:

"If you kill Wu Sansi, Zihua is willing to continue to benefit the people of Dazhou; if you don't kill him, Zihua will resign and be an idler in a prosperous age."

Wu Mei's mouth moved, but in the end she just ordered someone to punish Wu Sansi, ordering him to close the door and think about his mistakes.

Since then, Zhou Ming has regained his freedom.