When the imperial court wanted to build a straight road connecting every county, the places the road passed through and whose land it requisitioned were all matters that the relevant government offices of the prefectures and counties could discuss. The amount of compensation for the requisitioned land was also negotiable.
This allowed local gentry and officials to take advantage of the situation. The gentry bribed the officials to find out in advance where the road would be built, so they could buy land in advance. The officials would then deliberately increase the compensation, and finally the officials and gentry would split the spoils.
This is a typical example of collusion between officials and gentry to embezzle the interests of the state and the people.
Qin Chuan sat in his chair, his brows furrowed, growing angrier the more he thought about it. Finally, he couldn't help but slam his hand on the table: "Xiao Yue is right, we should kill all these bastards!"
"Husband, calm down, let me massage your shoulders..."
The Empress walked behind him, her slender hands massaging his shoulders, her breasts occasionally brushing against his back, quickly calming his anger.
Seeing that Qin Chuan's anger had subsided, the Empress asked softly, "Husband, what should we do now? Should we continue to allocate funds?"
After all, aside from killing a few typical cases, it's impossible to actually kill all corrupt officials.
If we kill them all, there will be no one to get things done, and if we appoint another batch, it's hard to guarantee that they won't become even more greedy...
Qin Chuan thought for a moment and said, "What else can we do? We can't just abandon the road halfway through construction. The funds still need to be allocated. Once the road is finished, we'll teach these bastards a lesson. I won't be able to quell my hatred without killing thousands of their heads!"
At this moment, he felt a pang of heartache. He had just spent over twenty million taels of silver, and now he had to spend another twenty million! He wouldn't be able to vent his anger until he had executed thousands upon thousands of corrupt officials and recovered a portion of it…
Suppressing his anger, he thought for a moment and said in a deep voice, "Li'er, we need to reform the system. We can't let corrupt officials lead us by the nose anymore!"
The Empress was puzzled and asked softly, "How should we reform the system?"
"From now on, we'll eat from separate pots!"
The Empress, not understanding his meaning, massaged his shoulders as she asked, "Husband, what do you mean by that?"
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