The magistrate clearly had a lot of unspeakable suffering. At this moment, he looked at Zhu Yunwen with some grievance, as if he wanted to cry just because the local gentry's power was mentioned.

Zhu Yunwen also realized that the power of the local gentry seemed to be more difficult to deal with than he had imagined.

So Zhu Yunwen tried to relax and said to the magistrate:

"Tell me in detail just how powerful the local gentry have become."

The magistrate sighed slowly before saying:

"Let me put it this way, in Hekou County and even the surrounding counties, what we county magistrates say has no effect. Especially when it comes to matters concerning the gentry, landlords, and ordinary people."

If it's something unimportant, that's fine. But if it's something even slightly more important, especially if it involves vested interests, we officials have absolutely no say.

Even though the imperial court has decrees that we must implement, we face enormous difficulties in carrying them out. Ultimately, this leads to a situation where we are unable to implement some of the court's good policies, and it is also difficult for us to achieve anything significant in this area.

Then, having accomplished nothing, they received a poor evaluation in the officials' performance review. In a more serious case, this might be the end of their tenure as county magistrate; in a less serious case, they might receive a warning or a demerit.

Zhu Yunwen roughly understood that the magistrate's words implied that he had power but could not use it and could not accomplish anything.

He then bluntly stated:

"You mean that regardless of whether a policy is good or bad, as long as it involves interests, those local gentry might interfere with your actions, or even prevent you from doing it?"

The magistrate nodded and said:

"That's right. Take this sweet potato and potato seed project for example. Don't we officials want to promote this project properly?"

The Ming Dynasty has successfully implemented this policy in so many places. If it fails in our area, how can we explain it to the court? How can we explain it to the people?

If the policy fails to be implemented in our area, we will face punishment from the imperial court and condemnation from the people. We actually want to implement the imperial policy more than anyone else.

Especially with some good policies, we can accomplish the tasks assigned by the court, gain the love and respect of the people, and leave a good mark on our political achievements.

Why wouldn't we be happy to do it? But the local gentry and landlords, they insist on standing up to obstruct us and using all sorts of methods to prevent us from implementing the imperial court's policies.

They forced us to fail to complete the imperial court's tasks, and we were cursed by the people. What could we do? Just like yesterday, we were surrounded and yelled at by the people at the county government office; we had no way to express our suffering!

Zhu Yunwen stared at the county magistrate:

"Do they really have that much power and the ability to accomplish such a big thing?"

The magistrate smiled and said:

"Your Highness, you still haven't experienced life at the grassroots level. You don't know that in the county government, we officials are just pushed to the forefront, appearing to be the top leaders of the area."

In reality, this is just the official explanation. There's a saying that even a powerful dragon can't suppress a local snake. Although we were sent here by the imperial court as the most powerful local officials in the county...

However, compared to the local forces that have been deeply entrenched here for many years, we are nothing.

Just because we possess a seventh-rank official seal? Just because we are county magistrates sent by the imperial court? Do we really think we can command such widespread obedience in this place?

Impossible, unless you can become one with the local gentry and landlords, and they will support you in anything you do, then you can command a large following.

However, this is conditional. If they can support me, then I can support them. If they respond to my every call, then I must give them preferential treatment in the implementation of these policies.

For example, during the land reform in the past, some local gentry and landlords came to me and asked me to deliberately misreport the land area when measuring it.

In this way, although on paper their land holdings are the same as those of ordinary people, in reality their land holdings are much more numerous.

But could I agree to such a thing? I didn't agree, and because of this disagreement, I've always had conflicts with them, and I've frequently encountered trouble while serving as the county magistrate in this area.

Zhu Yunwen frowned and said:

"Isn't there a way to deal with these local gentry and landlords directly?"

The magistrate shook his head and said:

"Absolutely not. Let me put it this way: all of us officials were transferred from other places, and most of us are not locals."

But those who work as minor officials here—the yamen runners, constables, bailiffs, jailers, and even clerks and errand runners—are almost all locals.

They are the true natives of this place; we outsiders can't integrate with them at all. These people have lived here for years, and the networks of relationships they've built are exceptionally strong.

Let me put it this way: let alone dealing with a powerful local gentry, even now, if the clerks in the county government's accounting office make a mistake in their work, it's like this:

If I punish him a little more severely, he will secretly gather all the minor officials in the yamen for a meal and drinks, and then have a long talk about the principle of mutual dependence.

They would immediately unite and stand together to uphold the document. Because they felt that as long as they were united, even if I were the county magistrate, and even if the other officials in the county government held official ranks, they could not do anything to them.

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