Chapter 3588
With the experience of taking over Yingtian Mansion last year, Shi Chengwu was very comfortable dealing with this small Liuhe County.
He knew that the top priority after the war was to stabilize the situation in the newly occupied areas and ensure that there would be no chaos. The two most important factors are maintaining public order and material security.
In addition to setting up checkpoints and promulgating curfews at the entrances and exits of the city and important places in the city, another very important measure is to make full use of personnel who are very familiar with the local situation to assist the Haihan Army in maintaining local security.
This was the purpose of asking Wang Bingzhong to organize personnel to assist in duty. However, there are still tens of thousands of people inside and outside the county. Wang Bingzhong alone is definitely not enough, and Shi Chengwu will not put all his hopes on him.
After confirming that all the documents in the county government were intact, Shi Chengwu summoned the officials of the county government for a meeting.
The county magistrate was gone, and the only ones present were the county magistrate, chief registrar, Dian Shi and the heads of the three squads of government officials. These people had obviously learned about Zhou Sen's imprisonment. They were all trembling with fear and did not dare to speak out while standing in the hall.
Shi Chengwu said solemnly: "I have just seen your resumes. They are all old people who have been working in this county for many years. They must be very familiar with the situation in the county. Now that the governance of Liuhe County is changing, it is inevitable that there will be unrest among the people. This is the time when you need to come forward to appease and maintain order.”
"If you are willing to contribute, you can temporarily retain your previous position with double your salary and benefits. You will be given priority to retain your position after the county establishes a new management organization."
"If you don't want to serve our country, Haihan, then I won't force you. As long as you haven't done anything harmful to our country's interests before, you can leave Liuhe County on your own."
After speaking, Shi Chengwu looked around at everyone, waiting for them to express their attitude.
Those who are willing to serve Haihan can continue to work in the county government, and there will be corresponding arrangements for promotion and salary increase in the future. As for those who were unwilling to cooperate, although Shi Chengwu said that they could leave the county on their own, his words clearly meant to expel them.
Several people looked at me and I looked at you. In the end, the classless leader of the third shift took the lead in expressing his willingness to stay and serve.
Although they have official status, they are not imperial officials. To put it bluntly, they work for the yamen. As ordinary people with some privileges, the pressure to change jobs across countries will naturally not be as great as that of officials with formal establishment.
Shi Chengwu immediately agreed to let them resume work as soon as possible and assist the Haihan Army in maintaining order in the county.
I saw someone making the first move, followed closely by Dian Shi, who was also of no rank. His attitude was the same as that of the leader of the third shift, willing to change his position and join Haihan. Dian Shi's duty is to be in charge of arrests, inspections, prisons, public security and other affairs in the county. He is equivalent to the immediate boss of the third class of yamen, and he is also a group of people who are really responsible for the work in the county yamen.
At this time, there were only two people left, the chief registrar and the county magistrate. The chief registrar was relieved when he saw this. He bowed and said that he had been responsible for the household registration and land registration work in the county since he took office, and he might be able to help a little.
The oldest county magistrate probably had other concerns, saying that he was old and in poor health, so he asked Shi Chengwu to be magnanimous and allow him to retire and return to his hometown.
In front of everyone, Shi Chengwu did not force him, but ordered him to leave the country within three days and not return to Liuhe County without permission in the next three years.
After hearing this, the county magistrate's face couldn't help but change color slightly. He might have thought that he would be driven away, but he didn't expect that Shi Chengwu would only leave him three days. As the county magistrate, he must have some real estate in the county. Maybe he is also involved in the most profitable quartz sand mine business in Liuhe County. But if all these properties have to be dealt with within three days, he will have to sell them at a low price. If you don't, you will inevitably lose a lot of money.
It's just that the words have been spoken, and it's hard to take them back. Moreover, Shi Chengwu didn't give him a chance to regret, and immediately announced the end of the meeting. After everyone retreated, a person was escorted out from the back of the hall. It was Zhou Sen, the magistrate who was being detained.
It turned out that Shi Chengwu deliberately arranged for him to observe the meeting at the back of the hall, using the opinions of these people in the yamen to put pressure on him.
Shi Chengwu asked calmly: "How was it? Have you changed your mind? After today, I have no regrets about taking the medicine!"
Zhou Sen just snorted but did not answer Shi Chengwu's question.
When Shi Chengwu saw this, he immediately lost his patience and waved his hand to signal his men to take him away. Now that he has a lot of things at hand, he doesn't have much time to fight with a small magistrate.
Upon seeing this, Zhou Sen immediately shouted: "This general, I am willing to surrender!"
Zhou Sen wanted to be reserved and see if there was any possibility of bargaining, but he almost lost his last chance. Seeing that he was about to be taken away, he didn't dare to bet on what Shi Chengwu would do with him next, so he had to put down his attitude and express his attitude.
Only then did Shi Chengwu call for a halt and asked his men to move a chair for Zhou Sen to sit down and talk. But the shackles on Zhou Sen's hands were still not removed.
"Zhou Sen, since you are the magistrate of Liuhe County, please first tell us about the county's money and grain reserves!"
Shi Chengwu didn't want Zhou Sen to play tricks, so he went straight to the point. Although the money and grain revenue and expenditure of Liuhe County are documented and stored in the county government, based on Shi Chengwu's experience, these local officials must have some resources other than paper records. It depends on whether Zhou Sen will honestly explain this.
Zhou Sen hesitated for a moment, then began to tell Shi Chengwu about the money and food situation in the county.
Liuhe County is rich in water conservancy resources, flat terrain, and fertile soil. Therefore, agriculture has been a pillar industry of the local area for a long time. However, in recent years, due to Haihan's demand for quartz sand mines, most of the young labor force in Liuhe County has gradually moved from farmland to mines, and crop yields have inevitably declined.
There are still about 200,000 kilograms of grain stored in the official warehouse in the county. There are still some uncollected grains in several nearby villages, which should be about 70,000 to 80,000 kilograms. As long as the transportation and distribution channels are smooth, Liuhe County should be in the state in the short term. There will be no food shortages.
As for money, Zhou Sen said that the county government's bank contained all the local financial reserves, but Shi Chengwu didn't believe it.
He had visited the bank before and found only three gold ingots per pound, about two thousand taels of silver, and a total of more than three thousand Chongzhen Tongbao copper coins of various versions.
In addition, there are a bunch of IOUs, which are probably taxes that the county did not collect in time. The parties concerned issued IOUs and postponed the payment.
Shi Chengwu knew that Liuhe County had made a lot of money from quartz sand ore trading, and its finances should be very comfortable. It was unlikely that there would be only this small surplus in the bank, so he reminded Zhou Sen not to hide the truth and to honestly explain the whereabouts of the money.