Fu Shanhe

Chapter 126: The bureaucratic art of passing the buck

After counting the spoils, it was already the hour of Hai.

Looking at the statistical list, Li Mu smiled with satisfaction.

All the pirates' hard work in robbing has now benefited him.

A rough estimate of the value of these spoils alone is no less than 150,000 taels.

It has to be admitted that the salt industry is highly profitable, and huge profits were made within just a few months of resuming operations.

Even if most of the wealth was transported back, the remaining amount would still be a considerable fortune.

During the daytime battle, 726 civilians were rescued and 1,237 pirate heads were captured.

The cavalry brigade, as the protagonist, suffered only single-digit casualties, which can be regarded as a great victory.

"Change the captured materials and say that the pirates set fire to the spoils when they fled.

Other data also need to be modified.

There are only two thousand pirates. How can their colleagues in Nantong Prefecture save face?
A mere two thousand pirates dared to besiege the capital of Dayu. If the imperial court investigates them, a large number of people will be in trouble.

Yangzhou could not stand the turmoil anymore, so the number of pirates defeated increased to 10,000.

The number of casualties was falsely increased by two zeros, and the number of enemy troops killed was also increased as appropriate.

Make the battle more tragic so that the data looks more realistic.”

Li Mu ordered the battle report to be modified without changing his expression.

As a general, what he hated most was false reporting of battle achievements, which was inconsistent with his principles.

But as a court official, he had more issues to consider.

If the truth is reported, everyone in the court will lose face.

Not only would the officials of Nantong Prefecture be dismissed from their posts, but officials from Yangzhou Prefecture, Nanzhili, and the Ministry of War would also be reprimanded.

Maybe someone will be demoted because of this.

If you do this, you will offend a lot of people from all walks of life.

For the sake of the overall situation, Li Mu must find a way to reduce the adverse political impact.

Since it can't be that the officials of Dayu are incompetent, then the only possibility is that the pirates are too powerful.

"Sir, if the battle report says so, the risk will be on you.

If the imperial court sends someone to verify it, the matter will be easily exposed, and then..."

Master Lan persuaded gently.

It is not uncommon for officials to sell favors to each other, but this kind of risky favor is different.

The court was not monolithic; once the party struggle became intense, the censors would dare to dig up any dirt.

If things were exposed, the situation would be out of control.

"Don't worry, I know what's going on.

This is Yangzhou. If the imperial court wants to verify the war results, the Nanjing Ministry of War will send people here.

The Nanjing Military Department bears great responsibility for the Nantong Prefecture incident, and many of its officials are suspected of dereliction of duty.

As far as I know, those guys in Nanjing withheld a lot of the post-war reconstruction funds allocated by the imperial court.

I am saving them!

Even if it is for the purpose of the Beijing inspection, they have to find a way to make our military achievements real.

Even if something unexpected happened in the capital, he would send someone to investigate it personally.

So much time has passed since the incident, who can tell exactly how many pirates there were.

Among the pirates we defeated, there were quite a few salt workers.

It makes sense that the pirates would force them to fight us."

Li Mu said calmly.

On this issue, the local officials' interests are consistent with his.

It is equivalent to each party holding a handle on the other party, and the two sides perish together.

With such a handle in hand, future cooperation will be smoother.

After this experience, even if he is a military general, he will be regarded as one of their own by local civil officials.

Li Mu was sure that if he took this battle report to Yangzhou Prefecture to report the victory, all expenses of this battle would be paid in full.

"Best regards, sir!"

Although he said this, deep down he was in turmoil.

During the days he followed Li Mu, he witnessed a lot of darkness in the officialdom. The more he saw, the more confused Lan Linjie became about his future.

If he had no one to protect him, he doubted whether he could gain a foothold in officialdom.

For example, this artistic battle report in front of him. If he had not listened to Li Mu's explanation, he would have thought that the generals had simply falsely reported their battle records.

I never imagined that behind the battle report, there were a lot of officials involved.

No wonder that many times, the imperial court knew that its subordinates had falsely reported battle records, but the Ministry of War still condoned it.

It's not that the officials are confused, but rather that they are too clear-headed, so they have to pretend to be confused.

For a while, his desire to become an official faded a little.

……

Yangzhou Prefecture.

"Commander Li sent a victory message, the siege of Nantong Prefecture has been lifted, and the army is now hunting down the remaining enemies.

I hope we can step in and urge the Jiangnan Navy to cut off the pirates' return route. What do you think?"

Gu Youwen asked with a smile.

This good news is the best news he has received recently.

Nantong Prefecture was saved, so this pirate rebellion could be characterized as a local rebellion by pirates.

Pirate attacks on coastal areas occur every year.

As long as the city is not breached, it is a minor problem and the imperial court has long been accustomed to it.

The situation was under control, so he could be at ease as the prefect without having to worry about being politically tainted.

Against this backdrop, everything else is just side issues.

"Sir, the Jiangnan navy is indeed outrageous.

The pirates landed on the Yangtze River and invaded Nantong Prefecture. It has been so long, but they have not taken any action. If we had not spent a lot of money to build the Yangzhou Camp, we don’t know how this chaos would have turned out.

As an official, I will follow Lieutenant General Li’s suggestion and file a complaint with the Nanjing Ministry of War.

Request the Jiangnan Navy to dispatch troops immediately to block the pirates' escape route to eliminate the trouble forever!"

Ma Tongzhi's artistic answer suddenly turned the military achievement of the Yangzhou camp in defeating the pirates into the common achievement of everyone.

The officialdom is the most realistic place.

Since the Yangzhou Camp has demonstrated impressive combat effectiveness, their attitude towards the Yangzhou Camp must change.

In any case, the Yangzhou Camp is a force within their jurisdiction, and the Yangzhou Prefecture contributed to its formation.

Now that the Yangzhou Camp has formed combat effectiveness, it is a political achievement that comes readily to everyone.

"Your Excellency the Prefect, Ma Tongzhi is right.

The Jiangnan Navy must give us a reasonable explanation for the pirate invasion.

If they don't take action, we will impeach them for inaction!"

Judge Zhou Tong took the opportunity to add another blow.

The Jiangnan Navy was not their target. There was no grudge between the two sides, so there was no need to beat them to death.

At this time, they were targeting the Jiangnan Navy because they were targeting the six ministries in Nanjing, or to be more precise, the Nanjing Ministry of War.

Under normal circumstances, it is a taboo in officialdom for lower-level government offices to play tricks on higher-level government offices.

But the situation in Dayu is different. There are two teams operating in the court.

They were people promoted by Lord Xu. Before that, when Lord Xu was in Yangzhou, he was badly cheated by the bureaucrats in Nanjing.

If the situation had not changed later and the three imperial envoys had not reached a reconciliation in private, Xu Wenyue might have been stuck in the quagmire and unable to get out.

When the boss is cheated, the younger brother naturally has to find a way to get back at the boss.

Now that the opportunity has come to them, it would be remiss of them not to take action.

As for whether Li Mu mentioned the Jiangnan Navy in his battle report, it was not important at all.

It was just an excuse. The real purpose was to expose the dark side of the Nanjing Ministry of War misappropriating military pay by threatening the Jiangnan Navy.

At a time when the imperial court was strengthening its military, if something like this happened, Emperor Tianyuan would definitely make an example of him.

As long as the matter is made public, a large number of officials in the Nanjing Ministry of War will pay a heavy price for it.

The lighter punishment is dismissal from office, and the more serious punishment is exile.

If things go wrong, other departments might be implicated. This is the price of offending a powerful minister.

……

Nanjing Military Department.

Upon receiving the good news from the Yangzhou Camp, Tian Zhisheng smiled with joy.

The good mood did not last long, and he was immediately angered by the report from Yangzhou Prefecture.

It seemed that he was criticizing the inaction of the Jiangnan Navy, but in fact, the content of the official document was full of allusions to him as the Minister of War.

Knowing that it was aimed at him, Tian Zhisheng could only pretend not to know.

On the surface, the Jiangnan Navy should indeed be held responsible for the pirate invasion of Nantong Prefecture.

It is understandable that they did not discover it in advance, but the enemy has been struggling in Nantong Prefecture for nearly half a month and has not taken any military action. This is too much.

This time the pirates only attacked Nantong Prefecture, causing limited impact. What if they change their attack to Nanjing next time?
Even if we don't attack the city, letting the pirates run wild on the Yangtze River route is still full of risks.

“Forward this document to Duan Ganhong and tell him to keep all these pirates at bay no matter what.

If you let the thief run away, he will have to bear all the responsibility.

If anything goes wrong, don't blame me for being rude!"

Tian Zhisheng said indifferently.

Letting subordinates take the blame is the most normal thing in the officialdom of Dayu.

As the Minister of War, even though the Nanjing Ministry of War was almost idle, he was still a ceiling-like figure in the Dayu Dynasty.

Even if the court wanted to hold him accountable, it would have to go through a court discussion before dismissal.

During this period, he had a hundred ways to deal with a weak general.

“Sir, the prefect of Yangzhou is Xu Wenyue’s favorite student, and we have offended Lord Xu before.

Now that he has the evidence against us, he will definitely not give up.

I know Duan Ganhong well. He is a slick and ruthless person and will not give in easily.

It's still too far-fetched to use the evidence we have to convict him.

If he gets pushed into a corner and reveals everything, no one will be better off.

It would be better to use both coercion and inducement, first trick him into throwing out a person to convict, and then put the blame on the Jiangnan Navy.

......"

Yin Dengjia stepped forward and suggested.

He didn't want to let his colleagues down, but he had also taken a share of the profits from the misappropriation of naval funds.

Now the officials of Yangzhou Prefecture intend to dig deeper into the matter. For their own safety, they must find someone to take the responsibility.

As the commander-in-chief of the Jiangnan Navy, Duan Ganhong is undoubtedly an excellent candidate to take the blame.

"it is good!

I'll leave this matter to you, but don't act rashly for now. Wait until the war is over and decide based on the circumstances.

Although Duan Ganhong is a bit rebellious, he still has some talent.

I am a person who values ​​talent, and I cannot bear to see such a brave general being ruined like this.

If the Jiangnan Navy can redeem themselves from their crimes and keep the pirates here, then it would not be a bad idea to extend a hand to protect him!"

It was clearly the responsibility of the Nanjing Military Department, but in Tian Zhisheng's mouth, it had a completely different meaning.

It can be seen that he is professional in shirking responsibility.

"Your Excellency is wise!
If Duan Ganhong knew that you are so kind to him, he would be extremely grateful!

......"

Yin Dengjia offered a round of flattery without batting an eyelid. Upon seeing this, the other officials in the Ministry of War also chose to follow suit.

For a moment, the yamen was filled with laughter.

(End of this chapter)