Chapter 566

Counties were established under the commandery, and the county was in charge of townships and pavilions.

The township had a Township Official in charge of township affairs, three elders in charge of education, a Patrol Officer in charge of township security, and a Township Assistant in charge of tax collection.

When he was in Jinyang, Duan Yu had served as a Patrol Officer for a period of time.

So he knew these grassroots officials very well.

"Subordinate Yang Wu, greets the Marquis." Yang Wu hurriedly stepped forward to apologize and said: "I didn't know the Marquis was inspecting, and failed to clear the road in advance, please punish me, Marquis."

Duan Yu took a deep breath.

This was bureaucracy.

It could never be avoided.

Now that there was a snow disaster, the snow in front of the villagers' doors hadn't even been cleared yet.

But after learning he was coming, this small township official actually led the villagers to clear the road.

Pure formalism.

"Let all the villagers go home, no need to clear the snow anymore." Duan Yu said with a dark face.

Yang Wu was so scared his eyelids twitched.

After the villagers went home, Duan Yu followed Yang Wu's lead, and with a group of officials, went directly to Yang Wu's home.

At this time, charcoal fire had already been lit in Yang Wu's home.

Although the temperature in the room was still very low, it was much better than outside.

Duan Yu sat beside the brazier.

Gai Xun, Yang Fu, Yan Zhong, Jiang Xu, and others all knelt behind Duan Yu.

In front of Duan Yu, separated by the brazier, were the Township Official Yang Wu and several small officials.

"How many people have frozen to death in the township so far, and how many households are poor and have difficulty keeping warm?"

Duan Yu asked, holding a cup of hot tea.

Yang Wu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, looked up at Duan Yu, and stammered: "Reporting... reporting to the Marquis, there... there are more than a dozen people who have frozen to death..."

Bang!

Before Yang Wu could finish his words, Duan Yu smashed the teacup in his hand to the ground, looking at Yang Wu with cold eyes and furrowed brows.

"Do you take this official for a blind man?"

"Along the way, how many households didn't clear the snow in front of their doors, do you think this official didn't see it?"

Yang Wu immediately knelt on the ground, his butt stuck high in the air.

"Sub... subordinate... subordinate deserves to die..."

"Hmph."

Duan Yu snorted coldly: "You do deserve to die."

"If it were in the past, this official would have slaughtered you now."

"But this official will give you a chance now. Starting today, count all the people in the township who have difficulty keeping warm and those who have no labor in their homes to clear the snow."

"The small officials in the township will organize spontaneously, starting from you, the Township Official, the three elders, the Patrol Officer, the Township Assistant, the Pavilion Chief, the Pavilion Marquis, the Village Head, the ten-household leader, the five-household leader, each household will send one person to help the households in the township who are unable to clear the snow."

"In addition, register all those who have difficulty keeping warm and have no grain to live on."

"Don't think about cheating this official; this official is not like those previous Governors."

"If this official finds out, the consequences... you naturally know."

Duan Yu's tone was cold.

Yang Wu was so scared he didn't even dare to lift his face from the ground.

"Subordinate... subordinate understands, subordinate... subordinate dares not."

Yang Wu's voice trembled.

"Chief Clerk Gai." Duan Yu called out softly.

Gai Xun, who was kneeling behind Duan Yu, immediately moved forward: "Subordinate is here."

"How was the snow disaster in Hanyang Commandery last year, and how many people froze to death?"

"Subordinate... subordinate..." Gai Xun was a bit ashamed; compared to Yang Wu, he wasn't much better.

People freezing to death happened every year.

This was already a common occurrence.

Heavy snow blocked the mountains, firewood couldn't be gathered, and those without labor in their homes basically couldn't survive the winter.

Plus the food shortage, many people froze to death every year.

But no one had ever counted the specific numbers.

Duan Yu took a deep breath.

Tie Shitou brought another cup of hot tea to Duan Yu.

Looking at the steam rising from the hot tea, Duan Yu felt helpless.

The road is long and the burden is heavy.

Some things cannot be solved overnight.

Even those so-called good officials of the Eastern Han were sloppy when it came to dealing with people's livelihood.

It wasn't that they didn't want to, but that some orders simply couldn't reach the county and township levels.

Every place had its local powerful families.

If these officials wanted to be stable in their posts, they first had to be on good terms with the local powerful families.

And the kind of order Duan Yu issued was undoubtedly directed at the powerful families.

In this Weiyang Township, the Township Official Yang Wu was a powerful family, and these small officials were the masters.

There was no reason for powerful families and masters to help the common people.

The common people were born lowly, and from birth to death, they were like weeds on the side of the road; no one cared about the life and death of the common people.

If there really were such officials above, the people below would definitely try every means to get them removed.

But Duan Yu was not afraid.

Because he was different from all the previous Governors and all the Inspectors.

It was still because of that sentence.

Abundant martial virtue!

As long as his martial virtue was abundant enough, these powerful families and small officials wouldn't dare to act recklessly.

Gai Xun couldn't answer, this wasn't Gai Xun's problem.

It was a problem of the bureaucratic system.

Since he had decided to rule the people with benevolence and win their hearts.

This point must be changed.

"Write it down." Duan Yu said coldly: "Starting now, take Jixian as an example."

"Each county, starting from the Magistrate, count all the townships under their jurisdiction, and the Township Officials and a group of officials will do as this official says."

"Count the number of people who froze to death, and those who have no labor in their homes, count them by the township officials, or they can report it themselves."

"Print and distribute this document, and it must be passed to every township."

"The printing will be issued by the Commandery, and all the white paper used will be provided by the County Government. The document will be printed and issued to the townships, and the three elders will educate the villagers to know about it."

"Anyone who violates the order, does not comply, or is negligent will be dismissed." Duan Yu said with a dark face.

"Understood." Gai Xun bowed and replied.

"Commandant Jiang." Duan Yu called out after taking another sip of tea.

Jiang Xu moved half a step forward like Gai Xun: "Subordinate is here."

"The numbers counted by each county will be collected by the Jixian Commandery soldiers from the surrounding areas; this task is handed to you."

"Understood." Jiang Xu hurriedly agreed.

Duan Yu naturally didn't need to let the last remaining Yang Fu rest either.

Yang Fu's official position was Liangzhou Administrator, and logically speaking, he should be a subordinate of the current Inspector Geng Bi, and should follow Geng Bi's orders.

But Duan Yu had no intention of giving Geng Bi a chance to exercise his power.

The Inspector's authority was to supervise whether the powerful families' fields and houses exceeded the prescribed system, and whether they bullied the weak with strength.

Supervise the Governor for not following imperial edicts, not following the code, and scraping the people's fat and ointment.

Supervise the Governor for unfair judgment, arbitrary killing, capricious rewards and punishments, being hated by the people, and various rumors of disasters.

Supervise the Governor for nepotism, favoring flatterers and alienating the virtuous.