Zhu Yunwen smiled:

“Girl, you’re not too stupid. You’ve figured this out, so all the reminders I’ve given you haven’t been in vain. That’s right, it’s all about interests. The bandits have interests, and so do certain people in the government.”

The interests of bandits are perhaps simply to rob and plunder, and avoid being eliminated by the government. And the interests of the government are, for example, the money allocated to suppressing mountain bandits.

The money wasn't used to suppress the bandits; they only did a superficial job, and naturally, some people pocketed the money.

Since everyone benefits from this, they are naturally willing to continue this charade.

Where there is profit, business will last. Therefore, the suppression of mountain bandits became a matter of interest between the government and the bandits.

Unfortunately, the imperial court was footing the bill for them, constantly paying out silver, while the people were also footing the bill, constantly suffering from the harassment of bandits in the mountains and marshes, enduring untold misery.

Frankly speaking, this act of deceiving superiors and subordinates, and profiting from others' suffering, is truly despicable.

Zhao Qingzhu looked at Zhu Yunwen with admiration and said:

"I didn't expect that you would have such a bold and extremely reasonable guess so soon after you arrived. You're really amazing."

Zhu Yunwen was indeed very clever; he hadn't conducted any investigation into this matter yet.

Based solely on the bandits encountered on the road, the number of raids recorded in the logbook, the names of the bandits, and many inconsistencies, I made some sorting and guesses.

Add to that the judgments about interests and human nature, and we have this series of speculations that are almost close to the truth.

So Zhao Qingzhu asked Zhu Yunwen:

"So how do you plan to handle this?"

Zhu Yunwen: "No rush, let's wait and see if these veteran actors and bandits will continue or what moves they make. Only when they make a move can I make my next move."

Since they all love acting, I naturally have to act alongside them again, but I need to figure out their script first.

Although Zhu Yunwen had only just arrived, he had already basically figured out the routines involved.

He didn't believe that a mere Black Cloud County could be repeatedly targeted by so many bandits and mountain thieves.

Why aren't there any in other counties?

He was even less convinced that with the capabilities of Heiyun County and the large sum of money they had applied for, they could still not wipe out these bandits.

Therefore, there is only one possibility: this is an act of self-theft.

This is a case of officials and bandits colluding to cause trouble. Although this is just Zhu Yunwen's guess, it only needs a little verification to determine whether it is correct.

In other words, as Zhu Yunwen said, we should wait and see where bandits might cause trouble again.

Only when it appears can Zhu Yunwen take action and resolve the matter.

So Zhu Yunwen wandered around the county government office and found that there was nothing wrong with its working system. Then he went to the back office, to his residence, tidied up a bit, and rested with Zhao Qingzhu.

As for the ten Imperial Guards brought by Zhu Yunwen, they were hidden in the shadows as Zhu Yunwen had instructed, and were not revealed.

Because Zhu Yunwen needed them to do things in secret.

After four or five days, no bandits or mountain thieves came out to cause trouble.

On the contrary, Zhu Yunwen was busy with the affairs of the county government every day.

There are indeed many things to do in the county government office. Almost all civil, political, and military affairs, as well as all kinds of trivial matters, are handled by the county magistrate.

Therefore, the documents delivered to Zhu Yunwen every day were piled up like mountains.

Fortunately, Zhu Yunwen had been frequently involved in handling state affairs before, so he was quite adept at dealing with matters in this county and did not experience much pressure.

After all, even the memorials in the imperial study hadn't stumped Zhu Yunwen, so the affairs of this county government office were naturally no problem for him either.

Therefore, Zhu Yunwen could always handle many matters in the county government office with ease. The mountain of documents could be cleared away in just one hour.

Zhu Yunwen also handled all sorts of trivial matters in an orderly manner, even after all the day's tasks were completed.

Even in the afternoon, he could have plenty of free time to drink tea and chat with Zhao Qingzhu, which was quite leisurely and comfortable.

However, inside a room in the county government office, the fat county magistrate's face was unusually grim.

He looked down at the registrar and said:

"How could this Magistrate Zhu handle all the daily affairs in such a short time without revealing anything?"

The fifty-something-year-old, bearded registrar sighed and said:

“County Magistrate Zhou, what do you suggest we do? I thought that by picking out all those trivial matters and handing them over to Magistrate Zhu, he would be too busy to pay attention to the bandit problem.”

But judging from the current situation, it seems to be completely different from what we imagined. He is not only adept at handling these political affairs, but he is also able to dedicate a great deal of time to them.

Even though I inexplicably added some extra tasks for him these past two days, he still managed to handle them all perfectly. At the county office, he dealt with everything—whatever could be dealt with, whatever couldn't, whatever was piling up—he did it all, keeping him completely occupied.

Upon hearing the registrar's words, Magistrate Zhou rubbed his forehead and, after a moment, spoke:

“This is definitely not a solution. If we let him stay idle like this, how will we have a chance to cause trouble? Let's create some messy things to keep him busy.”

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!