Book 6: Chapter 2: Li Xiping’s Wisdom

Twilight, East Port Town’s eastern entrance, Lin Xi bid his farewells to Justice Sector’s Jishizhong Jiang Rui.

Right now, it was precisely when Breath River’s riverside plums matured. This was normally the rainy season, and this year, the rainfall was even greater than usual. It was only sunny for a moment in the afternoon, right now, rain was still fluttering about in the sky.

Jiang Rui’s sleeves flowed in the breeze, extremely plain and unadorned. When he came, he only brought an attendant with him, and now that he was leaving, he didn’t tell the others. His luggage was extremely light, he controlled the horse himself, wearing a woven rush raincoat, not drawing much attention to himself.

Only, when he left, there was now another youngster at his side, Wang Buping. Wang Buping and Lin Xi had only interacted closely for a few days, but because of the things that happened during these few days, Lin Xi already viewed him as one of the people most deserving of respect in his eyes. Now that they were about to separate, when Wang Buping thought about the storm the ‘Young Sir Lin’ brought who the people supported, and then about how once he left, who knew what this young Enforcer would face, his mood became indescribably heavy.

“Sir Lin, take care of yourself.” In that instant, while looking at Lin Xi under the umbrella, seeing him off, he was choking with emotions, finding it hard to speak.

“Let’s go.”

Jiang Rui gave Wang Buping who was choking with emotion a faint look, and then nodded towards Lin Xi, starting to stir on the horse.

In Yunqin, apart from cultivators which were special existences, ordinary people had two paths they could take. The first was to pass the imperial examinations, the other was to first become a member of the various sectors, climb up through merit. This type of method sounded a bit easier, which was to first do some odd jobs in the various sectors, after all, quite a few departments still needed members to do odd jobs. Once they served for a set amount of time, or had exceptional performance, they could then start accumulating merit, obtain scholarly honor. At that time, they would be officially evaluated by the Ministry of Appointments, rising up to a formal official.

The promotion of those in the Border Army, this was precisely the path they walked.

As a cornerstone of civil officials, Jiang Rui was actually quite opposed to this second method of entry.

In his opinion, in all fairness, this type of method was obviously better for selecting talented individuals, more fair, allowing those who weren’t good at tests, but could get things done to stand out from the crowd. However, Yunqin attached emphasis on martial might, so this made many crude and rough individuals who only understood slaughter in the military rise up. Moreover, in the past decade or two, because Yunqin’s interior has been peaceful for a long time, many officials began to love ease and comfort, hate work, corruption becoming a widely known affair. Under this type of situation, this second type of entering the royal court became more favorable for some officials to buy and sell, cultivate trusted aides and other things.

As long as they wanted to, under the fostering of higher level officials, if ordinary people wanted to have good performances, accumulate enough merit to become a petty officer, this was completely not an issue.

Wang Buping was only an umbrella craftsman, not particularly outstanding in either Statecraft or Martial Skill. Passing the preliminary round of the imperial examinations was a completely impossible matter, which was why the path Lin Xi wanted Wang Buping to take, entrusting him to Jiang Rui, was also precisely the second path.

Because of his dislike towards the second method, together with the bit of dislike he almost intuitively felt towards Lin Xi, when he left, Jiang Rui’s attitude couldn’t help but become a bit too apathetic.

Only when East Port Town was far behind them to the point where even the outlines were completely drowned under the rain and darkness, did this old Imperial Censor who was upright and plainspoken, but also followed and defended the law rigidly realize that he shouldn’t let his mood affect this youngster, so his eyebrows jumped, turning around to look at Wang Buping who followed at his side, saying, “Making an umbrella for a single person is easy, making an umbrella for all under the sky is difficult. Since you are following me out of East Port Town, then take a good look, learn well, in the future, properly make a large umbrella that can shield Yunqin’s people from wind and rain.”

…

Inside Deereast Manor, five or six officials of different sectors, all of them with ranks higher than a Town Supervisor tacitly agreed to wait in a hall.

At this time, the accusations of misconduct released by Imperial Censor Jiang should already be on their way to the various sectors on the provincial level. Due to various interests involved, these Deereast City officials, even though they couldn’t stop these impeachment documents from being released, they all drafted up their own plans, pleading for reversals, trying their best to make this matter smaller. As for that East Port Town Enforcer, he even more so became the focal point of many people’s criticism.

Even though they never had direct friendly relations with Xu Ningshen, because there were no flaws to pick from Imperial Censor Jiang, not that many areas to attack, these officials used the most commonly seen tactic in bureaucratic struggle, to attack Lin Xi who he protected again and again, use this to display that Imperial Censor Jiang was a bit unfair in the treatment of this matter.

These types of methods often made one side who was supposed to be punished with a hundred strikes, instead become two sides, one side taking fifty strikes, another twenty strikes.

Moreover, the military knew that these civil officials always felt that Yunqin royal court’s civil and military powers weren’t balanced, always targeting the military’s side, which was why during these years, the military had also carried an extremely strong attitude against some Imperial Censors and government officials. That was why of the five or six officials who were waiting for the City Supervisor’s official reply, the official from the military prison and the official from Justice Sector were simply waiting to see Lin Xi’s miserable end.

Unlike the news Lian Zhanshan and the others received, in reality, apart from applying the three instances of guilt on Lin Xi, Internal Affairs Sector added the criminal charges of improper management of subordinates, abuse of power, and hindrance of goods transport.

The criminal charges stated that when goods were being unloaded from East Port Town, the patrolling officers of the Enforcer Office would often not be present, and when the floating corpse appeared, Lin Xi detained Thriving Prosperity’s large ships without concrete proof, greatly affecting the transport of goods in East Port Town, causing the royal court’s taxation to suffer quite the significant losses.

These accusations indeed existed, difficult to escape from.

That was why according to their deductions, to demote Lin Xi from major tenth rank to minor tenth rank, and then forfeit his salary for a year, this was considered a light punishment.

These officials didn’t have to wait for long, less than ten halts passed after all the documents were sent out and a wave of footsteps sounded. A thick browed middle-aged military personnel dressed in black leather armor quickly entered this hall, handing the replies Deereast City Supervisor Li Xiping gave to the reports made by these waiting officials.

The official from military prison smiled towards his colleague from Martial Sector. However, when he only gave the document a brief look, his smile immediately became pale, freezing on his face, unable to hold back a cry of disbelief, “How could it be like this?”

“Even if your brains are filled with sh*t, are your eyes blind too? A time limit of seven days is clearly deliberately making things difficult to begin with, yet East Port Town Enforcer Lin Xi only used a day to solve the case, moreover completing it so thoroughly, cracking this type of heaven shocking great case. You all didn’t offer a reward, instead accusing him of misconduct?”

“Just how many days has it been since Lin Xi arrived in East Port Town? He just arrived, yet he already solved such a huge case, this is already enough to prove that his bravery and intellect are outstanding. If anyone is to be criticized for improper management of subordinates and that there were bailiffs being lazy, then it is the fault of the previous Enforcer and upper management’s fault, how can it be placed on him? As for Thriving Prosperity, when they discovered the case at the port, sealing off the port is completely within reason, and Lin Xi only used a day of time to solve the case, this can only prove that his efficiency is great! This day of time, how much can it hinder your Internal Affairs Sector? Let alone the fact that Thriving Prosperity didn’t even complain, yet it was you all who complained?”

“This matter was the military prison’s severe neglect of duty to begin with, yet you want to punish someone who made huge contributions, are you trying to make the will of the people go cold? Silver Hook Lane existed for so long, yet there isn’t even the slightest rumor? This Clear River Town’s Enforcer was already involved in the case, he is definitely going to be punished majorly, yet when this Silver Hook Lane was in East Port Town, even if East Port Town’s Town Supervisor and police aren’t directly involved, is it possible for them to be completely ignorant? Even if they knew absolutely nothing, then they truly are just muddle-headed, their butts should be nudged a bit.”

“The current emperor has investigated the styles of governing strictly. With someone like Enforcer Lin, an exception should be made to directly promote him!…”

When they saw that the official reply actually carried these words, as well as the ink blotches representing extreme anger, and then looked at the exception for promotion words, the military prison’s official felt a bit dizzy, his body actually staggering, almost falling.

He still just couldn’t figure it out. What exactly was going on with this City Supervisor?

No matter how upset he was, he should still want the effects of this to be diminished… Apart from being unable to protect those officials directly involved, he should try to save as many of the other officials who were directly involved and accused of misconduct as possible. However, this City Supervisor’s reply stated that this wasn’t enough, pointing out even more people. Moreover, he was not only completely sheltering Lin Xi, he actually even wanted to bestow a great reward upon Lin Xi.

“How could it be like this?”

When these officials just couldn’t figure it out no matter what they thought, inside the City Supervisor Manor, the short and small Li Xiping’s face was exceptionally overcast, his body shaking slightly from the excessive stirring of emotions.

“All of you are a group of idiots! None of you know who he is, but I do!”

Most likely because he thought about the reactions those officials would have when they received his reply, Li Xiping couldn’t help but shout viciously in this completely empty hall.

If it was another City Supervisor, or even Provincial Supervisor, none of them would know Lin Xi’s identity.

However, Li Xiping did, because this Lin Xi, was precisely someone recommended to join Green Luan Academy’s great entrance examination by him. Moreover, this was spurred on by the current imperial princess.

In all of Yunqin, whose opinion was greater than Yunqin Emperor and the imperial princess’?

Moreover, when Lin Xi left Deereast City, he was only an ordinary countryside youngster, yet when he came back, he was already a formidable cultivator, just what happened during this half year of time?

On top of that, the imperial princess loathed the corruption of governing, moreover already passed by Deereast Town, warning him, so even if someone threatened to remove him from his City Supervisor position in order to deal with Lin Xi, he would rather lose his imperial position than dare to be too biased on this matter.

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