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◎Comparison between Prince Jing and the Little Princess◎

For an entire afternoon, Qingyang did not touch the account books prepared by the county magistrate Shang Chibai, but focused on inspecting several places, namely the treasury and prison of the county magistrate's office, the two official warehouses in Xingyang City, and the two largest pawnshops in the city.

At first, Shang Chibai and other officials did not take the little princess seriously. They thought that the princess had some talent and reputation at most, having topped the palace examination, and had no idea about the twists and turns in officialdom. But they forgot or really thought that the little princess's movements around government offices in the capital when she was young were just a joke. Little did they know that the little princess had a pair of observant eyes and a sharp mind that could see the big picture from the details.

While in the prison, Shang Chibai suspected the princess would ask the prisoners if they had been wronged. However, the princess rebuked those who were crying foul and instead asked about their meals. With the princess's guards watching, Shang Chibai and the other accompanying officials dared not make any eye contact, so they listened to the prisoners' answers, which were classified as top, middle, or bottom rations.

Why is this so? Because prisoners come from different backgrounds. Those with better financial circumstances often have someone they can trust to bribe the prison guards, allowing them to eat better. However, those without power or wealth can only eat ordinary prison food.

Shang Chibai would break out in a sweat whenever the little princess glanced at him, and he promised in fear and trepidation that he would eradicate the bad habit of prison guards accepting bribes.

As the saying goes, "If water is too clear, there will be no fish; if a man is too strict, there will be no followers." Qingyang had never expected that all the officials in the capital or the localities would be saints. She only wanted them to stop treating her like a fool. Therefore, she had no intention of punishing the county governor for such a trivial matter. She only said earnestly, "It's normal to just bribe the jailers to arrange a few meals. But I'm worried that someone with ulterior motives might poison the food to silence the suspect, or bribe the jailers to torture the suspect into confessing, or even fake a suicide. Does Lord Shang have any plan to remedy this?"

In such a huge county magistrate's mansion, there is only one county magistrate, but there are hundreds of minor clerks and jailers. It is good enough if the county magistrate can keep himself clean. If we expect the county magistrate to deal with the petty corruption and profiteering among his subordinates every day, who will do the real work?

Shang Chibai thought for a moment and said, "All meals for suspects and prisoners in custody must be taken from the county magistrate's dining hall. Anyone who dares to bring food to a suspect will be fined, dismissed, or convicted, depending on the severity of the offense."

In this way, if a jailer really accepted the bribe, he could take out a portion of it and give it to the canteen manager or the cook to make something good for a particular suspect.

Qingyang nodded, and then interrogated two death row prisoners who were waiting to be executed in the autumn. One had already confessed his guilt and was waiting to be executed, and the other cried out for innocence. However, there were witnesses and evidence, and there was no doubt about the case. Qingyang praised Shang Chibai, and then he walked out of the dark prison.

The silver vault contained the tax silver of Xingyang County to be handed over to the court, as well as the part kept for disaster relief and repairing government offices. Qingyang carefully examined the quality of the silver in the vault and the traces of dust on the ground, above, below, and around the silver. This showed whether the silver in the vault had been kept there all the time or was temporarily moved in from somewhere else.

Shang Chibai was not a corrupt official, but he was impressed by the little princess's careful investigation.

Granaries were required to inspect the grain's age and storage conditions. Imperial regulations mandated that each autumn, before releasing new grain into the granaries, the previous year's grain be sold off, either to the people or used for government meals. This ensured the quality of the grain stored in the granaries, ensuring it could be used for wartime or disaster relief. Corrupt officials might use old or defective grain to fill the gaps year after year, selling the new grain at a high price for their own benefit, or even leave the granaries empty. Incompetent officials might even neglect the storage of the grain, wasting high-quality grain.

Shang Chibai himself was a man of both talent and virtue, and Xingyang was too close to the capital, so he would never dare act like a corrupt or incompetent official.

Just when Shang Chibai thought that today's political questioning was roughly over, the little princess suggested going to the pawnshop.

Even the emperor had never visited any dental clinics during his previous northern tour, so why did the little princess do this?

Shang Chibai and others had no choice but to follow the little princess to the pawnshop again.

The owner of the pawnbrokerage agency was even more panicked, fearing that the princess from the capital and the county magistrate would suspect him of kidnapping girls and children. He took the initiative to submit his purchase and employment contracts for the princess and others to review.

Qingyang didn't believe this, because whether it was officials or businessmen, if there was a real problem, they would make the account books watertight. At least it would take more than a day or two to find the problem, unless everyone was an expert in accounting like Jia Fangping.

Qingyang randomly selected a dozen people and asked them about their hometowns and reasons for selling themselves. Some said that they were poor and had to sell their daughters to pay back the money for their elders' medical treatment. Some said that they were orphans since childhood and didn't know who their parents were. Some said that they could not survive because of a disaster in their hometown.

Most of those who caused the disaster were from other counties or even other states. Qingyang silently noted this down, saving it for future questioning of local officials involved in the famine. If he encountered someone from his own county, he would inquire about the reasons for their family's poverty. When his father ascended the throne, he distributed land to poor farmers and commoners. In the past few years, he had also forced officials and gentry to return the land they had held on to. If officials had diligently implemented his father's two decrees, the people would not have been so poor unless they encountered special circumstances.

Of course, if the people gambled away their wealth, contracted a serious illness that cost them money, or committed a crime on impulse and had to pay compensation, the government would be unable to intervene, and the women and children of the family would suffer.

However, after a trip to the two brokerage houses, Qingyang actually got clues about a powerful family that bullied the people in a county town under the jurisdiction of the county.

Qingyang looked at Shang Chibai.

Shang Chibai said solemnly, "I will immediately send someone to investigate and strive to give the Emperor and the Princess an explanation tomorrow night."

Qingyang nodded and told the officials to go back and rest first, after all, it was almost dusk.

Shang Chibai: "No hurry, we will escort the princess back to the official post station."

Qingyang smiled and said, "Who said I'm going back?"

The little princess did not return to the official inn, but she did not tell Shang Chibai and others where she was going. She only asked Fan Huaizhong and a dozen other personal soldiers dressed in plain clothes to follow her and blend into the bustling streets of the main street of Xingyang City.

The County Magistrate wiped the sweat from his forehead and speculated, "Could it be that the princess wants to continue her private visit?"

Shang Chibai stared at him suspiciously: "So what if it's a private visit? Have you done anything wrong?"

The county magistrate hurriedly said that no, it was just that the people usually respected them, and now there were suddenly a few more nobles in the city, and they were also worried that they would be criticized by the emperor or even lose their official hats because of some small mistakes that were beyond their ability.

Shang Chibai more or less understood what the little princess meant. The little princess didn't care about their minor mistakes. What she wanted was their honesty and the willingness to correct their mistakes as soon as they realized them.

"Let's go back to the government office first."

They couldn't control where the little princess went, so the most urgent thing was to first investigate the case of the powerful man who used tricks to seize the people's land, and to reflect on their own shortcomings in governance in recent years.

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People from Qingyang came to the teahouse to listen to stories. Xingyang is a big city with many businessmen and travelers, so the business of several teahouses is good.

Qingyang chose a small teahouse where there were more common people drinking tea. Most of the tea drinkers here were local people. In the evening, they would spend one or two copper coins to buy a bowl of coarse tea and chat with each other while drinking.

The well-informed people already knew that the emperor had entered the city, and most of them were talking about it, imagining what the emperor, princess, and prince looked like, and chatting about the great things that the emperor, who came from a commoner family, had done over the years to benefit the people. Some of their stories were true, some were false, some were pleasant to hear, and some were not, such as the satire on the little princess's entry into the court.

Fan Huaizhong was so angry that he glared and was about to explode.

At this time, a gray-haired old man said, "What's wrong with a princess entering the court? As long as she has the talent for governing and wants to do good for the people, what's the difference between a princess and a prince? In the past, the officialdom was all men, but did those officials treat us ordinary people well? They just wanted to get promoted, get rich, and sleep with women."

"I'm afraid she doesn't understand anything..."

"The princess started reading at the age of three and won the first place in the palace examination at the age of fifteen. She is a genuine female top scholar. If the top scholar doesn't understand, how can you understand?"

"We don't know whether the princess understands or not. I heard that the princess loved going to Jingzhao Yin to hear cases a few years ago. And in those years, Jingzhao Yin took on a lot of old wrongful cases. Do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Haha, because the little princess was watching, the Jingzhao Yin didn't dare to be perfunctory. Whenever the people came to sue the Jingzhao Yin, he would quickly make a judgment on their case. I have a relative who lives in the capital. He said that in those years, many people were able to sue the officials who oppressed them thanks to the little princess. Then, a group of officials in the capital became more honest than each other, and the playboys in their families didn't dare to cause trouble."

"Look, this proves that the little princess actually knows everything. Otherwise, how could a Jingzhao Yin, who is in his forties, not be able to fool a teenage girl?"

"The Jingzhao Yin has been replaced. The original case was handled so well that he was promoted to the Minister of Justice!"

Qingyang quietly told Fan Huaizhong something.

Fan Huaizhong roared, "Since officials in the princess's area dare not give a perfunctory response, shouldn't the people of Xingyang City take advantage of the fact that the emperor and princess are here to rush to the county governor's office to redress their grievances?"

The topic among the tea drinkers became whether there was any major injustice in the local area.

After listening to everyone, Qingyang found that the county magistrate Shang Chibai had a good reputation and few tea drinkers scolded him.

Suddenly, some tea drinkers looked behind her.

Qingyang turned his head and saw Zhang Su, who had just stepped in in casual clothes. In the half-light and half-darkness of the evening sky, his figure was like a sword and his face was like cold jade.

Originally, Qingyang had attracted enough attention from the tea drinkers. As soon as Zhang Su sat down, the tea drinkers stopped chatting and began to look at them openly or furtively.

Qingyang had found out almost everything he wanted to know, so he simply called Zhang Su and Fan Huaizhong and left.

After leaving the teahouse, Fan Huaizhong consciously took a few steps back and looked at both sides of the street.

Qingyang then asked Zhang Su, "Did the master and his wife send you out to find me?"

Zhang Su: "Master is fine, but Madam is a little worried."

Qingyang mounted his horse and walked towards the official post station while asking Zhang Su and his second brother about what they had seen and heard in Xingyang Guard. He learned that his second brother had only watched martial arts and sparred with several strong and burly soldiers, and that Zhang Su had taken people to inspect the armor, weapons, barracks, etc. Qingyang sighed silently for his second brother.

When the children returned, Emperor Xingwu called the brother and sister to his presence and asked them to tell him what they had done.

Qin Bing was the elder brother, so he spoke first and commented on the martial arts performance of the soldiers of Xingyang Guard. It looked okay, but not as good as the soldiers of the Beijing camp.

Qingyang tried to be as concise as possible, but she couldn't just take care of her second brother, so what Qin Bing heard was that his sister had actually figured out the personalities of several civil servants, and she also commented on the strengths and weaknesses of Xingyang County's administration in a well-reasoned manner.

Emperor Xingwu nodded and made new arrangements, saying, "Tomorrow, the second son will accompany the prefect to inspect the dike, and Lin'er will go to Xingyang Guard. Let's see if you two can check on each other's shortcomings."

Qin Bing: “…”

My sister has even dug out the powerful people in the county she has never been to, so what else could be missing? But as for the Xingyang Guard, he is probably as vulnerable as a sieve.

【Author’s words】

100 little red envelopes, see you tonight~