Many accounts in Huating County are more problematic and have more loopholes than those found by Li Ling when he was in Jiangcheng County. Therefore, it took him just a few hours to catch the shortage of silver in the warehouse and the problem of not being able to match the account. Once these problems are really investigated, Xu Gong, as the former county magistrate, will definitely not be able to refuse and will bear the blame.

He was more and more frightened, and his eyes were only scanning the few pieces of paper that were pushed in front of him. Although he didn't know what the messy ghost-like marks on it meant, the last few lines were still very clear. Last year, there were 3,000 taels, and this year it was 800...

Seeing that he did not speak, Li Ling added: "I think the problem should be more than one or two years, right? As long as I really check it, in ten years, the shortage of silver treasury alone can reach 50,000 taels or even more. As far as I know, the laws and regulations of this dynasty, any official who is greedy for more than one thousand taels will be dismissed from office, more than three thousand, and exiled to the house. More than ten thousand taels will not be able to turn over, not only you, but also your family will never be able to turn over!"

"I..." Xu Gong stumbled for a moment, suddenly stood up, and then knelt in front of Li Ling: "Mr. Li, please spare me, please... This is also a helpless move. Please don't make this matter public!"

His defense was finally completely opened up, and Li Ling grabbed his most fatal handle in one fell swoop. At this time, there was no solution except to surrender. While speaking, Xu Gong also wanted to kowtow and beg for mercy, but was supported by Li Ling who had wandered out of the case: "Mr. Xu, you have ruined me, you and I have the same official position. How could I accept such a great gift from you? Get up and talk."

Li Ling wanted to help the person up, but Xu Gong still knelt on the ground and said with a begging look: "Mr. Li, please promise your subordinates not to tell them about this matter, otherwise, the subordinates... they will have to kneel down and die here."

OK, this is a trick. Li Ling's eyes flashed, his hands slowed down, and his tone became a little stiff again: "Mr. Xu, are you trying to hold me up?"

"No...I dare not, I'm just...I'm just..." He didn't know what to explain for a moment, so he could only continue to look at Li Ling, hoping to get his understanding.

"I also know that if I really report this place, Lord Xu will be severely punished, and I am willing to let you go." Li Ling said, seeing the other party just smiled, but then changed the subject. "But, the fact that you have lost so much money over the years is there, and it is hard to guarantee that the court will find out when the court will find out, but how can I deal with it? I can't put myself in to help you, right?"

"Xiaoguan understands, Lord Li, you are in a dilemma. Actually, Xiaguan doesn't think about it. But what is going on in Huating County? Lord Li, you are arriving in the first place. Even if I don't want to greed for some money, others will take the money in the warehouse back to their homes. I... I'm not hiding it from Lord Li, in fact, Xiaguan has only accumulated more than 3,700 taels of silver in the past ten years. I am willing to take out half of it. No, 70% of it is given to the adults, just to ask the adults to be proud and let me go." As he spoke, Xu Gong took out the few silver notes hidden in his sleeves with some trembling trembling hands and held them in front of Li Ling.

When he came to the county government, Xu Gong was prepared and thought that he might lose money and avoid disasters. However, when he really gave so much money, his heart still felt ache. This was the income of his hard work for many years. He was so much wronged and infamous that he had suffered. However, for the sake of his future and safety, he could only bear the pain of giving up.

Li Ling took the stack of silver notes casually and glanced at them. They were all from the largest Hengtong bank in Jiangnan, and the denomination was quite large, either three hundred or five hundred, and this stack was only about ten. However, he really didn't take this amount of money seriously. His bookstore's annual income was ten times more than this.

Originally, when Li Ling took the silver bill, Xu Gong breathed a little relieved, thinking that things had turned around, but he saw that the other party put the silver bill on the table casually, and then looked at him: "Even if you have the heart of repentance in the silver here, you should return them back to the warehouse again. However, your sins cannot be avoided, after all, these thousands of taels of silver are far from filling the deficit in the warehouse."

"But...but I really can't come out with more money..." Xu Gong was about to cry. Your appetite is too big. It looks even more cruel than the Xu Fang family.

Li Ling helped the other party again: "Mr. Xu, you misunderstood. I don't want you to spit out all the money. I also know that the various concealments in the county yamen are not your own problem. This is because almost everyone in the yamen is trying to make a good Huating County become a land like today."

Listening to Li Ling's words, Xu Gong became more and more confused and guessed what his purpose was. In this distraction, he was easily helped up, and then unconsciously sat back on the chair beside him. Li Ling stood in front of him, staring at him with a condescending expression, with a sincere expression: "I know you are forced, because the real commander of Huating County is not you, the county magistrate. For example, the Xu family controls most of the power of the county government. So they unscrupulously take the wealth that should belong to the court and the people, and then leak some out of their fingers to seal your mouth, so that you will become their accomplice."

"Mr. Li..." Xu Gong was panicked again. He didn't expect that Li Ling would reveal the secrets of the county so bluntly. Now everyone knows this fact, but almost no one dares to tell them.

Li Ling patted his shoulder and told him not to panic. He continued, "They are lawless here and do things that greatly harm the people of the court, but they only use this little benefit to make use of you and push you, a real official of a county seal, to the front and face the wind and rain. If there is really a mistake, you will be the one who is unlucky. Lord Xu, are you willing?

"Just like now, as long as I report the local bank account issues truthfully, you and your family will be done, but they can be free and at most a few irrelevant people will be punished. Is this fair? Is this the purpose of your hard work and hard work as a court official?"

Xu Gong was speechless after these words, and then he smiled helplessly.

Yes, are you willing to do it? Of course I am not willing to do it! I was also an ambitious officialdom at the beginning. Although I was only a juren, I couldn’t really do anything, but I had thought of doing something differently. But what was the result?

As a result, I was trapped in Huating County as a county magistrate. Even though I later became a county magistrate, my situation did not improve at all. No, not only did I not improve, but because of that incident, I completely became a puppet of the two families and could only rely on them to survive. It was really not that little dignity that the imperial court officials should have.

Until now, I finally saw that I could get out of this quagmire, but this Li Ling found out the problems in the accounts again, and he wanted to take the blame for those hateful guys...

I can only be a puppet with a thread, and I don’t even have any autonomy?

No, I'm not willing to give up! I can't just finish it, let alone let my wife and children be implicated in this!

After thinking for a while, Xu Gong's eyes flashed with determination: "Mr. Li, what do you want to say?" He calmed down instead, and at the same time, he finally realized that Li Ling said so much must have a deeper purpose.

Li Ling smiled: "What I want to say has already made it clear before. Huating County has many hidden feelings, and I don't want to be the one who is the one who is the one who is in the top of the tank, so this time it will be necessary to solve all the hidden feelings."

"This is impossible, you said too. Huating County is not something that our county government can do..." Xu Gong said subconsciously, but held back the latter sentence, let alone the final decision, because you, a new county magistrate, have no one available to you.

"Then I want to ask Lord Xu, is Huating County still my Dayue territory? Is it still a city in Jiangnan, a county town under Songjiang Prefecture?" Li Ling stared at the other party with a burning look and asked. Of course, Xu Gong was not easy to deny this question, so he could only nod.

"That's strange. Since that's the case, why can't the county magistrates named by the court like you and me make decisions here? Because the Xu and Fang families are already deeply rooted here and have long been above the court?"

Xu Gong sighed: "Mr. Li actually understands what he meant, but the problem is that the situation here is indeed very complicated. The power of the Xu and the two families in Huating County is much greater than you think. This is just one aspect.

"The other key is that their people have long controlled the entire county government. No matter the six-bedroom and three-bedroom team, they are always the ones who follow them. If we don't make friends with them, we can say that this government order cannot even leave the public room door, let alone implement it in the whole county.

"After all, everything depends on the people below, but these people only listen to the orders of the two families and do not regard us as bosses at all..."

Li Ling smiled, not a bitter smile, but an excited and meaningful smile: "Is that true? So the county government can't even trust anyone?"

"That's right... it's true. Because these people either belong to those two families, their descendants, or their subordinates, they have to rely on them to support their families. In fact, the subordinates also belong to the second type."

Li Ling nodded gently: "It seems that Lord Xu has not completely given up on himself. At least he is quite familiar with the situation in the county yamen. That's easy to deal with. Lord Xu, I can take on your crime with all my strength, but I hope you can do me a favor!"

"What...what is it?" Xu Gong was uneasy and had vaguely guessed what a crazy decision this young man was about to make.
Chapter completed!