Zhu Yunwen always felt something was strange. He always felt that although the current official system was very perfect, there might still be corrupt officials.
It is absolutely impossible that there are no corrupt officials at all, and the people generally have a high opinion of the officials in Annam.
This seemed unrealistic to Zhu Yunwen, since he had prepared himself mentally for the possibility that the corruption, greed, and misconduct of officials in Annam would be even greater than in Goryeo.
Because Goryeo is a more convenient place for development, its systems in all aspects are much more complete and better than those in Annam. Moreover, the southwestern region has always been relatively remote and has received less attention from the court.
The southwest region was often plagued by chaos, leaving the imperial court helpless. Although the situation has greatly improved, it is impossible for it to be completely problem-free.
Therefore, Zhu Yunwen felt that there must be something wrong with this.
Therefore, Zhu Yunwen said to Zhao Qingzhu:
“Let’s ask a few more people. I have a feeling something’s not right. This place is far from the emperor’s reach, so remote, and it’s only been under the emperor’s rule for a short time.”
Even if the officials who come to this place are law-abiding, some will inevitably be corrupt; they can't possibly all be as selfless as these people claim.
Zhao Qingzhu nodded and said:
“I think so too. I wanted to say it before, but I wasn’t sure. Now that you have the same doubt, then I guess our doubts are probably true.”
Zhu Yunwen said:
“There must be something fishy going on when things are not normal. Although these people say that the local officials are managing things very well and there is no corruption or abuse of power, what they say may not necessarily be true.”
If both of them feel there's a problem, then there probably really is.
Zhu Yunwen, in particular, always had a very accurate intuition. So, the two of them continued to question some of the people in this city in Annam.
They asked everyone, rich and poor, men and women, young and old.
The answers were, as always, very similar. The people all praised the current officials, saying they were much better.
If you ask them what's wrong with it, they can't say. It's just good.
Even after receiving the same answer again, Zhu Yunwen and Zhao Qingzhu still found it somewhat unbelievable.
So Zhao Qingzhu proposed a solution, saying:
"How about this, let's go directly to the vicinity of the government office and see for ourselves. Seeing is believing. Let's see if the local government office is really as impeccable as these people say."
Zhu Yunwen thought it was a good idea, and the two hit it off immediately. They headed towards the yamen (government office), and when they arrived outside, they saw a group of people queuing up to have their cases heard.
Upon seeing this, Zhu Yunwen frowned and said:
"The sheer number of cases indicates that there are still some security problems in this area, so why do the people have such a high opinion of the officials?"
At this point, Zhu Yunwen could be fairly certain that the true situation of the officials in Annam was likely vastly different from the people's perception of him.
It's definitely not as good as they say.
This made Zhu Yunwen find it somewhat laughable.
In the places I've visited before, most of the people had a very poor opinion of the officials. But sometimes, even though some officials did do a pretty good job, there were always people who were dissatisfied with them.
That's a normal reason.
This situation is almost the first time Zhu Yunwen has ever seen anything like it.
It is highly likely that the officials did not perform very well, but the people unanimously gave them high praise.
This reversal of priorities left Zhu Yunwen puzzled.
Next, he went outside the yamen to observe the proceedings and see how the trial was going to go.
If the officials are indeed very good, but the problem lies in the local area being difficult to govern, then it might align with what the people are saying.
Otherwise, we really need to investigate thoroughly what caused the people to have such a high opinion of these local officials.
I watched for a while at the yamen gate. The first couple of cases weren't anything special; they were just trivial matters.
The official didn't encounter any problems, and the trial was relatively reasonable.
But then Zhu Yunwen saw a relatively wealthy man go up to file a lawsuit, and the official's attitude changed drastically.
It was obvious that the official treated the wealthy man much better, especially after the wealthy man had made subtle hints all day. The official then began to find reasons to favor the wealthy man.
Zhu Yunwen was no fool. This official's actions might fool many of the people present, including the one who had been wronged.
But he couldn't fool Zhu Yunwen.
From the official's behavior, he immediately realized that the official was intentionally or unintentionally guiding the conversation.
The outcome of this case was biased in favor of the wealthy person.
Such tactics might not work in other parts of the Ming Dynasty, but in Annam, the people there are relatively more pure-hearted.
In other words, they haven't seen many sophisticated tactics. In the past, the officials in Annam basically used trickery and force to seize wealth, without using any tricks. They were very blatant in oppressing and deceiving the people.
Now, these officials have been replaced by those from the Ming Dynasty. These Ming officials have been in officialdom for a long time, are quick-witted, and have many tricks up their sleeves. They play a sophisticated game and naturally won't do things as openly as the officials from Annam before.
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