Chapter 422 Raising troops to investigate crimes
Xiao Xia was also a little restless. After the symposium, Xiao Xia immediately called Gao Jiong and Liu Wenjing over.

“It’s been almost a month since the General Administration Office was established, and nothing has been done so far. We can’t delay any longer. We must find a breakthrough. Tell me, where are we stuck now?”

Gao Jiong said, “We are still stuck with a shortage of manpower. Our recruitment deadline is the end of the month, which is still ten days away. If Your Highness is in a hurry, we can take the exam in batches. We will start notifying you today, and the first batch will take the exam the day after tomorrow. We will take the second batch after the deadline.”

Xiao Xia felt a little annoyed. After all, Gao Jiong had been in the court for too long and was too steady and unhurried.

Xiao Xia could only hold back his dissatisfaction and said, “There are many ways. We can use the students of the prefectural school to get things done first. We need to do several things at the same time. We can’t finish one thing before doing another. It’s too inefficient. We will start to set up a labor camp tomorrow and notify the six county governments in Jiangbei to send all the laborers to Jiangdu before the end of the month. We will officially dredge the Shanyang Du at the beginning of next month.

In addition, tomorrow I will directly send the King of Jin’s order to all counties in Jiangnan Road. Before the end of the month, all counties must clear all checkpoints for me, and no garrisons are allowed to be stationed at the city gates. If they are not removed by the deadline, they will be charged with making up excuses and oppressing the people. The county magistrates will be suspended and recommended to the court for dismissal.”

Liu Wenjing said quickly: “It’s not good to bypass the county government! Why not send them at the same time, send the Jin Wang Order to the county government, and also send a copy to each county. We will send cavalry out tomorrow to deliver them to each county.”

Xiao Xia nodded, “Okay!”

Gao Jiong sensed the King of Jin’s dissatisfaction, and he felt a little ashamed, so he said to Xiao Xia: “If Your Highness feels that the counties are not cooperating enough, you can actually use the method of killing one to warn the rest to deter the counties. This is also a solution.”

Xiao Xia said coldly: “Mr. Gao is right, I will set out to inspect Wujun tomorrow!”

Xiao Xia had long been dissatisfied with Wujun. Up to now, except for the officials from Jian’an County who had not come to see him, the only ones left were those from Wujun. Not only did they not come, they also did not provide the requested list of money, grain and assets, nor did they deliver the taxes from the court. It was obvious that Wei Yue, the governor of Wujun, did not approve of him.

Who is Wei Yue? He is Wei Chong’s brother. Xiao Xia knows it clearly.

In Luoyang, the various tedious matters of moving the capital are still going on, and it will take at least next year to be busy, but the court cannot stop functioning. Many official rooms have not been cleaned up yet, but the officials have already begun to handle court affairs in the simple venues.

The emperor’s imperial study had been completed, but a large number of documents and scrolls had not yet been put away.

In the imperial study, Emperor Yang Guang was discussing Xiao Xia’s request with Right Prime Minister Yang Su, Left Prime Minister Yang Da, and Minister of Personnel Wei Chong.

It has been two days since Xiao Xia submitted the memorial to the Emperor, and Yang Guang has been hesitant. Xiao Xia hopes to obtain the power to appoint and dismiss local officials. Currently, the Observation Offices of various regions only have the power of evaluation and supervision and impeachment, while the Jiangnan Region General Administration Office has an additional power to suspend officials.

“Please take a look, my dear ministers! The King of Jin believes that the Jiangnan Road General Administration Office is too weak to control the local government. He hopes that I and the court will expand the power of the General Administration Office. What do you think, my dear ministers?”

Wei Chong was the Minister of Personnel. He rejected the idea outright, saying, “Your Majesty, the power of officials is extraordinary. It is the fundamental power of the court and must not be delegated. I think that not only should it not be delegated, but the power to suspend officials from Jiangnan should also be taken back.”

Yang Da waved his hand and said, “Minister Wei, don’t get excited. Let’s talk about the matter at hand. Jiangnan Dao is a general administration office, not an observation office. It has the functions of the acting minister. The acting minister actually holds the real power of the King of Jin. The King of Jin’s request to increase the power of officials is indeed reasonable. Otherwise, there would be no point in setting up the acting minister’s office. Your Majesty can appropriately increase the power of the King of Jin. What we are discussing is the question of how much to give.”

Wei Chong retorted: “If we give them financial power and then official power, won’t Jiangnan Dao become a separatist force? Your Majesty, we cannot open this loophole. I firmly oppose it!”

Yang Guang also knew that Wei Chong’s opposition was obviously personal, but he had just taken office as the Minister of Personnel, so he also needed to respect his opinion. Yang Guang asked Yang Su again, “What do you think, Right Prime Minister?”

Yang Su said slowly, “I agree with the left prime minister. If you don’t give him administrative power, there’s no need to set up the Shangshu Xingtai. Since you’ve agreed that the Prince of Jin will be in charge of both military and political affairs, you should give him corresponding power. What I’m worried about is that if the Prince of Jin doesn’t have corresponding administrative power, he will use other extreme methods to exercise his authority, and that would be a serious problem.”

“What extreme method?” Yang Guang asked.
“If he eliminates them physically, the officials who oppose him will disappear one by one, but the case cannot be investigated. In the end, he uses a kind of terror threat to enforce his authority. With the bloody tactics of the King of Jin, Your Majesty should know that I am not exaggerating.”

Yang Guang was silent. Ever since he learned that Yun Shitai was killed by his son, he had been worried that his son would kill people in the officialdom and break the rules of the officialdom.

Yang Su asked Wei Chong again, “Minister Wei, do you think there is such a possibility?”

Wei Chong suddenly thought of his brother in Wujun, and his tone softened, “I support all your majesty’s decisions!”

Yang Guang nodded, “That’s it! Give the power to dismiss county-level officials to the Jiangnan General Administration Office, and the power of appointment still belongs to the court, but the General Administration Office can have the right of recommendation!” Wei Chong asked hurriedly: “Your Majesty, how does the Jiangnan General Administration Office exercise the right of recommendation?”

Yang Guang glanced at Yang Su, who smiled and said, “The Ministry of Personnel can give the Prince of Jin a list of candidate officials, along with their resumes, of course, and he can choose from the list to recommend!”

Xiao Xia’s fleet slowly arrived at the Wu County wharf. On the shore, three thousand escort cavalry had already arrived.

The governor of Wujun, Wei Yue, led officials from the county and prefecture levels and were already waiting at the dock.

As Xiao Xia stepped off the boat, Wei Yue stepped forward and said, “I am Wei Yue, the governor of Wu County, and I pay my respects to His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin!”

Xiao Xia sneered and said, “You don’t have to be so polite, Governor Wei. I should be the one to pay my respects to you. The new governor of Jiangnan Road, Prince of Jin, Yang Xia, is here to pay his respects to Governor Wei!”

Wei Yue and dozens of officials’ scalps exploded. Prince Jin came with ill intentions.

Wei Yue’s face flushed, and he quickly explained, “His Highness requested to come to the General Manager’s Mansion to meet him before the end of the month. I am preparing to leave in the next two days. I would never dare to look down on His Highness the Prince of Jin!”

Xiao Xia smiled faintly, “I know that Governor Wei is planning to come to see me on the last day. It is not against the rules and it also suppresses my arrogance. Am I right?”

“Your Highness has misunderstood. I am too busy and cannot spare the time.”

Xiao Xia waved her hand, “It’s okay, I’m not here to blame you this time.”

He then asked, “Who is in charge of the supplies in Wujun’s warehouse?”

An official stepped out and bowed, saying, “I am Li Qiliang, the Sima of Wu County, in charge of the storage of supplies. I am here to see Your Highness!”

Xiao Xia smiled and said, “Do you know how Liangzhou Sima Liu Huan died?”

“I don’t know?”

“When I first took office as the governor of Liangzhou, I asked him for the inventory of each warehouse in Liangzhou. He said I didn’t need to know. Then I sent people to burn the fodder warehouse. As a result, during the investigation, I found evidence of Liu Huan’s arson. I publicly executed him for the crime of arson to cover up corruption. Sima Li, go home tonight and say goodbye to your family!”

Li Qiliang was so frightened that he fell to his knees, shaking all over, unable to utter a word.

Wei Yue was furious and said in a stern voice: “Since the great prince of the Sui Dynasty has openly threatened to kill the minister, where is the law of the court? Where is justice?”

“My words are the rules!”

Xiao Xia stared at Wei Yue’s eyes mercilessly, and said with murderous intent in his tone: “Wei, let me be frank! I came to Wujun this time just for you. Either you resign and leave today, or you die. If you don’t believe me, just try it. I will use your head to let the entire Jiangnan Road know that if you don’t give me Xiao Xia face, you will die!”

Xiao Xia jumped on his horse and said coldly to Li Qiliang, “I’ll give you one hour. If I can’t see the inventory of all your property and supplies within one hour, I’ll behead you for disrespect!”

After saying this, Xiao Xia urged his horse to leave the dock and left with two thousand cavalrymen.

At the dock, dozens of officials were stunned.

(End of this chapter)