Chapter 461: Chapter 457: No Face_1
 

Yingbao smiled as she watched Wuyang stumbling towards her and tumbling into her arms.

“Miss!” Wuyang hugged Yingbao, seeking praise.

“Our Wuyang is really capable.” Yingbao patted his head and picked him up.

At this moment, a shepherd rode a large water buffalo from a distance and stopped when he saw a large crowd.

Wuyang pointed at the water buffalo with curiosity, wanting to go over.

Yingbao didn’t move. Wei Zhan and Chu Shun had already walked up to the shepherd to ask about local conditions.

For example, whether anyone had run away from farming, become a bandit, or whether anyone was exploiting the people by collecting excessive taxes, and so on.

The shepherd thought for a while, picked his nose and said, “Yes, a few days ago some government officers came and asked each family in our village to contribute a stone of grain. They said a commandery princess had arrived from Beijing, the princess had a lot of servants and needed a lot of grain to feed them. The officers said they were collecting the grain by the order of the princess.”

Upon hearing this, Wei Zhan’s heart filled with rage. He asked, “Are these government officers the ones who usually come to collect taxes?”

The shepherd boy nodded.

“Very well.”

Wei Zhan let the shepherd boy go and turned back to Yingbao, “It looks like the government office is completely corrupt from top to bottom. Without proper reform, it won’t work.”

Even though they were reducing taxes for the people, the officers still came to collect grain. Until such hypocritical scum was eliminated, the county would never be free of corruption.

Yingbao: “Don’t expose this matter for now. When we go back let’s post a notice to recruit a few teachers. Let’s claim that we are finding them for the children. We can recruit both martial and literary teachers, two for each.”

Wei Zhan was confused, “What’s the point of recruiting just a few? There are dozens of officers in this county, and every officer is backed by a powerful family. If we want to replace them, recruiting less than a hundred will not be enough.”

“We are using this as a cover. No one knows how many we are recruiting. Once they pass the examination, we can keep them all,” Yingbao said.

Wei Zhan realized, “That could work. I’ll put up the recruitment notice in every village. Make sure each village can recruit six people.”

Yingbao: “Remember, they must be honest people, and very poor.”

When hiring people, it’s best to choose those from poor families. They will be dedicated to maintaining their jobs in order to provide a stable income to support their families.

She wanted to replace those hereditary junior officials and officers with children from poor families.

Of course, if these officers behaved themselves, she was not against being lenient to them.

Because of the Imperial Court’s hiring policy, namely hiring government officials and officers with wages instead of rotating duties among the citizens as before, these positions gradually became a source of income for some people. Over time, some people even held onto these positions for generations, leading to rampant corruption.

The government officers colluded, bullying and oppressing poor families without fear of retaliation. Even if they killed someone, the victim’s family had nowhere to seek justice.

Just earlier this year, she had made an example of one, yet they barely behaved for three months before causing chaos again.

This time, they dared to act in her name. This was intolerable.

Returning to Zhouhe County, Wei Zhan immediately had clerks write recruitment notices, which were posted in every village market.

Then people came one after another to apply for jobs.

Among them, Wei Zhan checked the household registration of each applicant, confirmed their identity, and then eliminated those whose family members were junior officials or officers, as well as those from the rich and prominent families. About forty people were left.

“Send them to work in each village. They will assist the village Lizheng in collecting taxes. If they find anything wrong, they should report it immediately.” Wei Zhan told Chu Shun, “You also take twenty guards with you. If anyone objects, take them directly back to the government office and let the County Magistrate teach them how to do things.”

Every time Wei Zhan thought of that County Magistrate of Mei, he was filled with anger.

The old man was over fifty and should have been promoted to another position long ago. However, he was still a County Magistrate. Wei Zhan didn’t know if it was due to insufficient achievement or if he deliberately stayed on the field, acting as a local official with the Emperor being far away from him.

Either way, he was determined to drive that old man away. His stay in Zhouhe County would be a disaster sooner or later.

Chu Shun saluted, “Yes!”

Only after Wei Zhan had dealt with his official duties did he leave the study.

Suddenly, he heard a commotion and loud sobbing from his father’s yard.

Wei Zhan frowned and walked towards it with his hands behind his back.

Just as he stepped into the Wei Mansion courtyard, he saw a group of maids and old women trying to separate two people, “Lady, let go. You’re ruining the eldest master’s clothes.”

Upon having her hands pried open by the others, Mrs. Cao wailed even louder. “You heartless man! I’ve worked so hard to manage this family and raise your children, and you want to take my sister as your concubine? Are you still a human being? My God, how could you do this?”

Hearing these words, Wei Zhan had a rough idea of what was going on. He turned around and was about to leave.

“Qilang! You stand still!” Seeing Wei Zhan, Mrs. Cao was filled with anger and rushed straight at him.

The maids and old women saw this and quickly grabbed Mrs. Cao, “Lady, what are you doing? Why are you going after Master Qilang again?”

As she cried and wailed, Mrs. Cao pointed at Wei Zhan, “It must be your doing! You blasted… my sister is obviously… ”

Before she could finish her sentence, she was slapped by Wei Wenbo. She was stunned.

Wei Wenbo scowled and barked, “Stop your nonsense! Believe it or not, I’ll divorce you!”

Mrs. Cao, dumbstruck, covered her face and looked at her husband in disbelief, “You… you hit me? You dare to hit me in front of others? Oh… I can’t live!”

Seeing this, her nanny immediately hugged her and comforted her, “My lady, you must think clearly. It’s all that bitch’s fault. How can you blame Qilang?” Now the one who cannot be offended is Qilang. The lady is confused.

Mrs. Cao was soon escorted back to her courtyard by a group of maids and old women. The others also gradually dispersed.

Wei Zhan gave his elder brother a glance but said nothing, immediately heading for their mother’s courtyard.

Wei Wenbo lingered in the main courtyard for a while. He clenched his fist and headed straight out.

All he did after coming back from Beijing was to tell Mrs. Cao that he had taken Qinqin as a concubine. But this woman made a fuss about it, utterly embarrassing him.

She was really spoiled, becoming increasingly unmanageable!

Wei Wenbo decided that he would not come back this year, and let her endure life in Zhouhe County with the children.

“Hitch the wagon, we’re going back to Beijing!” He told his servant, “Also take the box from my room out. Be careful and don’t knock or bump anything.”

The box was filled with his private possessions and valuable items, which he was taking to Beijing.

As for the Cao family, they could live with their parents. They wouldn’t starve anyway!

“Yes! We’ll do it right away!” A few servants ran back into the mansion to move the boxes from Wei Wenbo’s room.

Mrs. Cao had no idea that her husband had taken away all the money and valuables in the house. Even the things that were worth a bit were all packed in a box and carried onto a carriage by the servants.