"Your humble servant... understands." Secretary Hufang lowered his head weakly.
The officials looked at the chief secretary of the Criminal Department and realized that Fang Yun would completely eliminate all of Shen Ming's power in Ning'an County, but even the Left Prime Minister himself could not object.
Suddenly, one of the clerks went limp and fell down. The officials nearby immediately helped him up, causing a brief chaos.
At the moment when the man fell unconscious, Fang Yun saw his face and remembered that the clerk was a distant relative of Shen Ming.
Two clerks, one on the left and one on the right, supported Shen Ming's relative. One of them said, "Sir, please have mercy. Shen Hu seems to have fainted. We should send him to see a doctor."
Fang Yun said, "Come here, please take a seat. Today is the Medical Literature Conference. I have sent a letter, and the doctor will be here soon."
The officials suddenly felt desperate and kept cursing in secret. It happened to be a medical and literary gathering where all the famous doctors of the human race gathered, so it was impossible for them to leave on the pretext of illness.
Ao Huang gave a malicious smile: "These people are so unlucky!"
Soon, a medical family came, including three Hanlin, seven Jinshi and a large number of Juren to assist. The old Hanlin also said that if the disease was serious, they could invite a medical scholar, which made the officials in front of the hall even more desperate.
Under normal circumstances, let alone Ning'an County, even if you want to find a medical scholar of this level in the entire Mizhou, you have to wait two or three days. There are only one or two medical scholars in the whole Mizhou.
Shen Hu was quickly rescued and sat in a chair with his legs shaking constantly.
Fang Yun thanked all the doctors and invited them to rest in the side hall. Before leaving for the side hall, the doctors said that they would come as soon as possible if there was any problem.
The officials originally wanted to use doctors and scholars to deal with Fang Yun, but Fang Yun was fine. However, they realized what it meant to be unable to live or die.
Fang Yun continued: "Where is the accountant?"
"I'm here!" An old scholar walked forward, lowered his head and said nothing.
The accounting office is in charge of the entire county's accounting transactions and money expenditures, which is extremely important. The current chief secretary is Ji Zhibai's confidant in Ning'an.
"Confess." Fang Yun had no expression on his face. He didn't say a word.
The simpler Fang Yun spoke, the more frightened the officials present became.
The accountant was also a smart man. He confessed immediately and told about some of his crimes related to Shen Ming.
After the chief accountant finished speaking, Fang Yun asked, "I heard that you are on good terms with the chief secretary of the clerk's office and the chief secretary of the military office?"
County Magistrate Tao Dingnian and Chief Constable Lu Hong looked at Fang Yun together, because the official office and the military office were under the jurisdiction of these two people!
Fang Yun wants to take advantage of this opportunity to completely control the ten departments of the county government!
The ten offices of the county government are the foundation of the entire county, because no order or action can bypass these ten offices. The ten offices of the county government are also the power of local officials to counter the county magistrate. Once Fang Yun completely controls the ten offices, the officials of the left prime minister's party will be sidelined!
Tao Dingnian looked at the other officials of high rank present and found that they were all silent, and finally he could only sigh.
As long as the Left Prime Minister and the Emperor could find an excuse, they could stop Fang Yun from serving in Jingguo or Shengyuan. Now that Fang Yun has an excuse, he can also force out the Ten Chief Secretaries and prevent all the officials from objecting.
The chief accountant told some of his crimes, which were far less serious than those of the chief accountant, because he was not Shen Ming's man, so Fang Yun did not investigate further. However, he was punished with confiscation of property, parading through the streets, and exile.
After Fang Yun finished his judgment, Yu Ba Chi stood up, bowed to Fang Yun, and said, "Sir, I have something to say."
"Well, since you work for me, you can say anything except cursing and framing people," Fang Yun said.
Yu Ba Chi said, "I think the chief accountant's confiscation of the property was excessive."
Yu Ba Chi's words resonated with the officials. A minor official whispered, "Searching a family's property means taking away all their property. What will happen to their wives, children and elders?"
Fang Yun stared at Yu Ba Chi. Seeing Fang Yun not speaking and looking away, Yu Ba Chi felt frightened.
After a long while, Fang Yun said, "If he embezzled 100,000 taels, he would be fined 10,000 taels and sentenced to three years in prison. Is the 90,000 taels for his official position or for his jail time? If a country treats corrupt officials so well, then the top officials of this country must be corrupt themselves and encourage all officials to embezzle! Confiscating property is the most basic respect for the law and the most basic respect for the people. It is the only proof that this country is fighting corruption."
All officials shut up.
Next, Fang Yun interrogated the other general secretaries and sentenced them all. He then drove away all the officials who had close ties with Shen Ming and placed his own staff in the ten rooms.
Since most officials below the county magistrate were locals, those staff members were only temporary substitutes, equivalent to temporary workers in the county government, but they were actually responsible for the operation of the county government.
This was Fang Yun's real intention in recruiting hundreds of private soldiers, to prevent the Ning'an County officials from doing nothing.
As for the appointment of the chief secretary and the chief clerk, Fang Yun said that it would be announced in three days.
These positions must be filled by locals, but not everyone in Ning'an County is a member of the Left Prime Minister's party. Fang Yun has already thought it through. The chief clerk should be an old scholar or old scholar who has been persecuted by the Left Prime Minister's party. This kind of old man has long lost the desire to fight for power, and he will not be allowed to hold real power. He only needs to be used to disgust the officials of the Left Prime Minister's party.
The Left Prime Minister has controlled Mizhou for decades. He has many disciples and enemies!
In the next three days, Fang Yun will wait for those people to come and join him.
Having taken control of the ten houses, Fang Yun did not plan to touch important official positions such as county magistrate, chief constable or court master.
Official administration refers to the atmosphere and achievements of officials in a place. Fang Yun took down some officials in order to change the atmosphere. If he took down all the officials, it would not be a rectification of official administration, but a revolution of officials, which would be a big event. Even if he managed Ning'an County well, the officials would have run away, and the official administration department would only be of the D grade.
From today on, Fang Yun truly holds the power in Ning'an County!
Fang Yun looked at the people in the hall and repeated in his mind what he had said before: what a mob!
These people seem united, but Fang Yun is not worried at all. These people have been tightly bound by the existing bureaucratic system. They dare not even break through the bureaucratic system, let alone resist a county magistrate and a virtual saint.
The reason why the Ning'an officials dared to oppose him, the virtual saint, was because these officials knew that the one who wanted to obstruct Fang Yun was the Zongsheng. A real half-saint, if he opposed Fang Yun, would be helping the Zongsheng. It was obvious who was superior and who was inferior between the two.
It's just that, when opposing an ordinary acting county magistrate, they can put in 100% of their strength, but when opposing a virtual saint acting county magistrate, they can only put in 70% of their strength at most. After all, no matter how virtual a virtual saint is, he is still a saint in name only.
Fang Yun knew exactly where these officials' bottom line was, so he struck while the iron was hot today and directly seized power.
Finally, Fang Yun looked at Shen Ming.
"Master Shen, do you have anything else to say?"
"I have nothing to say. I can only consider myself unlucky to have met such an ignorant niece," said Shen Ming.
Some officials sighed, saying that Shen Ming used to rely on the position of Left Prime Minister to do evil things and his mind was blinded, but now he has become more sober and like a normal juren.
Fang Yun nodded and asked, "If you were asked to go back to the past and make a new choice, would you still be the chief clerk, or give up your official career and make achievements elsewhere?"
Shen Ming was stunned, looking ahead with empty eyes. After a long time, two lines of tears fell.
"Your subordinate... Your subordinate... was wrong after all..."
Clang... Clang...
There was a crisp and subtle sound of pearls and jade colliding between Shen Ming's eyebrows, which was a precursor to the shattering of his literary talent.
Fang Yun said slowly: "I have said that I came to Ning'an not to destroy the world, but to cure diseases and save lives. For you, your property will be confiscated, paraded through the streets, and sent to the army. No one will be spared. However, I will give you another chance to choose. Are you willing to serve in the Northwest Army?"
The year before last, Zuo Xiang destroyed 100,000 Northwest Army troops.
(To be continued…)