Chapter 184 A Thousand Golds for Horse Bones

Guo Chengyou was executed the next day.

On the day of execution, he was still shouting that Zhao Jun was a powerful official, a traitor, and asked the emperor to open his eyes.

But unfortunately, the emperor could not hear his voice, and soon his head was chopped off.

Guo Chengyou's death was not a pity.

In fact, officials in the Song Dynasty could not be said to be scumbags everywhere.

At least officials in the early and middle periods of the Northern Song Dynasty still had some face and would not go too far.

In addition to the court's high-salary policy of maintaining integrity, there were not many corrupt officials with names in the history books during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song.

There were more corrupt officials like Renzong Tiantuan, who left their names in history and became a good story of civil officials in history.

But the corrupt officials who were able to leave their names in history books were basically the kind who were very excessive.

Guo Chengyou had a series of crimes in the history books. Now according to Zhao Jun's actual investigation, this was because the censors and censors did not check all the evidence.

After all, the censors and imperial censors did not have as much power as Zhao Jun. They could only impeach according to the public reaction, unlike Zhao Jun, who directly raided Guo Chengyou's house and looked for evidence in Guo Chengyou's house.

Therefore, compared with the people who had been harmed by this man, beheading was a bargain for this guy.

However, his death still caused a great disturbance in Bozhou and also caused a great disturbance in the land.

After all, it was rare for a prefecture to lose his head like this in the past Song Dynasty.

Especially Guo Chengyou was a person with a background. Everyone knew that his ancestor was a founding general, his wife was the princess of the Zhao family, and he was also an official of the emperor's East Palace.

As a result, such a person with a background died in the hands of Zhao Jun. How powerful was this prefect?

So that officials from top to bottom in Bozhou were trembling with fear and took up efficiency.

Originally, those bureaucrats who were mediocre and redundant even if they were not greedy or occupied, seemed to be diligent in their work, going to the mountains and the countryside, and comforting the people everywhere.

Bozhou seemed to be peaceful and prosperous all of a sudden.

But Zhao Jun knew that this situation would reappear soon after he left Bozhou. To maintain the status quo, the court still needed to send a capable governor of Bozhou.

So he wrote to the court again, asking the court to select people carefully and not to mess with those messy people who came to harm the people. He would kill as many of these people as he could.

By the end of February, Zhao Jun arranged the affairs of Bozhou, and then set off again, heading southeast into Suzhou.

Since his whereabouts had been exposed, he simply stopped visiting incognito and showed off his guards and headed east.

Almost when he arrived in Linhuan, Suzhou Governor Wang Su and Suzhou Tongpan Yang Cha came to greet him.

Wang Su is 31 years old this year, and Yang Cha is only 25 years old, but these two people have become the governor and Tongpan of a state, the top two figures in the state government, and can be said to be young and promising.

In fact, although Wang Su was young, he had been in the officialdom for 11 years.

He was a Jinshi in the fifth year of Tiansheng, and he was on the same list as Bao Zheng, Han Qi, Wen Yanbo and others. He served as Tongpan Yingzhou, Huaizhou, Xuzhou, and was also the Shangshu Tuntian Zhongwailang, Zhi Puzhou, Ezhou, Suzhou, and had quite a long career.

Yang Cha was a Jinshi in the first year of Jingyou, and he had also been in the officialdom for 4 years. Later, due to his outstanding political achievements, he was appointed as Zhi Yingzhou and Shouzhou. At the beginning of Qingli, he was the transport envoy of Jiangnan East Road.

In other words, Yang Cha passed the imperial examination in the first year of Jingyou, and in the first year of Qingli, in just seven years, he went from Tongpan to the highest-level official.

This is equivalent to the later generations who observed politics in the first year of the civil service examination, became a deputy mayor in the second year, and became a high-ranking official in the seventh year.

What an outrageous experience?

Zhao Jun certainly didn't know that these two were great people.

Wang Su and Yang Cha were both outstanding and honest officials in history, and they were highly praised in history books.

Wang Su, in particular, was one of the four counselors along with Yu Jing, Ouyang Xiu, and Cai Xiang. He had good achievements in local governance, but he was obviously not as famous as Fan Zhongyan and Su Shi.

Since Zhao Jun did not read the History of Song Dynasty very much, he was only familiar with household names such as Ouyang Xiu, Fan Zhongyan, Su Shi, and Wang Anshi, but he did not know much about Wang Su.

However, since he entered Suzhou, the people along the way lived and worked in peace and contentment. Although there were also some who lived in poverty, it was at least much better than Yingtianfu and Bozhou, which made him quite fond of the two and full of praise.

In the government office of Linhuan County, Suzhou, Zhao Jun looked at the governor, the judge, and the magistrate of Linhuan County standing below, and said with a smile: "Wang Su, I have read your resume. You did a very good job in Ezhou last year. Not only did you open the warehouse to release grain before the disaster relief document came from the court to prevent the people from starving to death, but you also abolished the system of selling salt based on the number of people, which made the people of Ezhou grateful for your kindness. This is great."

Wang Su was not happy about being praised. His face remained unchanged. He bowed and saluted generously, saying: "You are too kind, the governor. It is said that one should do his job and fulfill his responsibilities. This is what I should do, and it is not something to boast about."

"Well, very good."

Zhao Jun nodded with satisfaction and said: "I only found out on the way here that you are the son of Wang Wenzheng. Wang Gong "has been in power for 18 years and has been prime minister for 12 years." Even the government praised him as a veteran of all virtues. Now it seems that you have the style of your father."

"Thank you for the compliment."

Wang Su bowed again.

After Zhao Jun finished praising, he looked around at everyone and said, "Are you all curious about why I, the head of the Political System Institute, second only to the emperor and above all others, would leave the capital in plain clothes and travel to various places in the Song Dynasty?"

Wang Su said: "The governor has his own intentions."

"Yes."

Zhao Jun sighed: "I am not going to tour the places this time to look around and find some corrupt officials to chop off their heads. It is to explore the people's sentiments, understand the shortcomings of the upper and lower levels, and find ways to save the country."

Save the country?

The officials below were confused. Has the Song Dynasty reached the point of national destruction?

"Now the Song Dynasty is in a state of illness, the border enemies are blocking the pass, the hinterland is in constant disaster, the rich have mansions and fertile land, and the poor have no place to stand. Rebels are like crucian carp crossing the river, but many officials are intoxicated with singing and dancing. It can be said that there are internal and external troubles. What do you think about this?"

Zhao Jun asked, looking at the people below.

Wang Su was a future member of the New Party, an ally of Ouyang Xiu and Fan Zhongyan. He had been in the local area for a long time and had seen too many things, so he immediately said in a deep voice: "This is because the administration of officials is not done well, so that officials in various places are just sitting there doing nothing. If we can enforce the law and reform the malpractices, it will be much better."

"Oh?"

Zhao Jun smiled and said: "Does Wang Taishou agree that this court should execute Guo Chengyou in Bozhou to crack down on greedy people?"

Wang Su said: "Yes, I want to do the same."

Historically, when Wang Su was the Huainan Transport and Inspection Commissioner, all the envoys were strict and harsh, but Su was the only one who did not blame minor mistakes. He would pursue the greedy people and bring them to justice, so his subordinates respected and feared him.

It means that Wang Su did not deal harshly with officials who made small mistakes, and only brought those who were corrupt and perverted the law to justice, which was awe-inspiring.

"Yes."

Although Zhao Jun didn't know Wang Su well, he was very satisfied with his attitude and nodded, saying, "Very good, this court will remember you. You only served as the governor of Suzhou last year. I hope you can show your achievements and treat corrupt officials in this state without mercy. If you can appease the people, you will be worthy of the country. If the people's livelihood in Suzhou is better next year, this court will personally promote you."

You can't make promises easily in the officialdom. First, if you promote an official at will, it is easy to be criticized and say that you are powerful, which will cause the emperor to be suspicious. Second, if the promises you make are not fulfilled for various reasons, then your reputation in the officialdom will not be very good, and you will have difficulty in the future.

So the officialdom likes to use the kind of official tone that seems to be true, and it is as difficult to understand when speaking as the riddle man.

However, Zhao Jun didn't like this riddle man's tone. He preferred the attitude of seeking truth from facts. If you do a good job as an official, really do practical things for the people, and govern the local area in peace and happiness, why can't I promote you?

Therefore, he dared to break the routine of the officialdom of the Song Dynasty and make such a promise.

And this time when he went south, in addition to going to the grassroots to see the lives of the people and catching corrupt officials, he also inspected local officials to see if there were any talents that could be cultivated.

Whether it was the local road transport envoy, the censor, the judicial department, or the local prefects, the judges, or even the local county magistrates, the chief clerks, and the county lieutenants, as long as they had the ability to govern the local area and were upright and honest, he would definitely not be stingy in promoting them.

The most important thing was ability.

After all, compared to a fatuous and incompetent honest official and a corrupt official who could do practical things, the people actually liked the latter more.

If you are honest and upright, and can do practical things, this is the best official.

Wang Su's information had been checked on the way here by Zhao Jun.

A son of a famous family.

Being an honest official benefits the people.

He had many political achievements in Yingzhou, Huaizhou, Xuzhou, Puzhou, Ezhou and other places.

Before he took office in Suzhou last year, Suzhou was affected by the severe drought in Huainan and the situation was very bad.

In less than a year after he took office, he built water conservancy projects, reclaimed wasteland, resettled disaster-stricken people, and managed Suzhou in a good way.

Zhao Jun could naturally appreciate such an official.

Giving such a promise also played the role of buying a horse with a lot of money.

In addition, Zhao Jun also knew long ago that if he wanted to truly promote reform and development, he would definitely not be able to do it alone.

He must build his own team.

And relying on Fan Zhongyan's gang may not necessarily succeed, for example, Ouyang Xiu is a pig teammate.

So if he meets a talented person, he can promote him, and he can also build his own power when he arrives at the central government. Moreover, they are all young and promising people who are dissatisfied with the current situation of the country. Are they still afraid that big things will not be accomplished?

This inspection can also be regarded as a talent search.

Wang Su got Zhao Jun's promise, and he was still neither humble nor arrogant. He bowed and said, "Thank you, Zhiyuan."

At that time, Zhao Jun, accompanied by Wang Su, Yang Cha and others, inspected various places in Suzhou.

After staying in Suzhou for seven or eight days, although he only visited some places, Zhao Jun was not a puppet led by the local officials.

During this period, the inspectors of the Imperial City Department had already infiltrated various counties in Suzhou and went to the countryside to investigate the people's sentiments.

Local officials may not know whether the people in a place are living well or how the officials are doing, but can the people not know?

According to the collected information, Wang Su and Yang Cha are indeed two capable officials, which makes Zhao Jun very satisfied.

So after encouraging the two, at the end of February, Zhao Jun set out again, left Suzhou, and headed south to Haozhou and Shouzhou.