Soul echo

Chapter 738 Investigation
It is definitely necessary to investigate who influenced Zhang Xiyu, but this matter cannot be done by other people, Zhong Ye must investigate it himself.

It has not been ten days since Zhang Xiyu left Jingzhou. During these ten days, the person who secretly influenced Zhang Xiyu had enough time to wipe away the traces left by him. If Zhong Ye asked other people to investigate this matter, maybe the person who influenced Zhang Xiyu would hide Among those, give it a chance to clear the evidence.

Now he doesn't know if there is any evidence left, but just in case.

Anyway, the position of the magistrate of Jingzhou has now been given over to Situ Kong, and Situ Kong is gradually adapting to the position of magistrate these days, and it seems that he is doing a good job.

Perhaps it was because they were more meek and didn't like fighting, so Situ Kong inherited the policies formulated by Zhong Ye and the others very well, and their government team, which was originally put together on the spur of the moment, was also transformed into a 'regular worker' invisibly.

The officials were secretly delighted, but tacitly did not mention this matter, for fear that Situ Kong would notice it.

Now that Zhong Ye was trapped in Jingzhou, he happened to have nothing to do, so he could do his best to investigate that matter.

Zhong Ye is a person who can't be idle, or he has been idle for a long time before, and needs to exercise his muscles and bones, so that he devoted his time to investigation work the day after he finished talking with the emperor.

The first thing he wanted to investigate was Zhang Xiyu's connections in Jingzhou. This didn't take him much effort, because he had observed Zhang Xiyu for a whole month before, and he knew a thing or two about who Zhang Xiyu interacted with.

In order to stabilize his prefect status, Zhang Xiyu chose to win over and buy some officials. Those officials are still working in the government. Although they made mistakes, they were not serious mistakes and could be corrected, so Zhong Ye did not expel them.

"Master Zhang?"

When Zhong Ye mentioned that person, the official who was asked showed a slightly complicated expression.

This official was one of the people who was recruited and bought by Zhang Xiyu at the beginning. Looking back on those days now, he felt as if he was in a daze, and he would be bought by Zhang Xiyu.

He originally wanted to say something bad about Zhang Xiyu, but he thought that what Zhong Ye asked him was his true impression of Zhang Xiyu, so the official hesitated for a moment, and said: "Master Zhang should be regarded as a good official who works hard to govern. If it is placed in other places, he will definitely Can make a lot of achievements, but it's a pity that it's not suitable for Jingzhou..."

Zhong Ye nodded, and wrote a few strokes on the paper, "And then? Is there anything else?"

"Others..." The official thought for a while, then shook his head, "There is nothing else. Mr. Zhang is a very self-disciplined person. Maybe he really wants to do something big."

After blowing on the ink on the paper, Zhong Ye closed the booklet.

"Thank you for your cooperation." Smiling at the official, Zhong Ye turned and left.

This was already the third official he interviewed, one neutral, one opposing, and this official who was bought by Zhang Xiyu and stood on Zhang Xiyu's side.

The three people described their impressions of Zhang Xiyu from three angles, and Zhong Ye found that they had a common impression of Zhang Xiyu, that is 'hard work'.

Zhang Xiyu seems to really want to make some achievements, so during his time as the magistrate, he did many things by himself. This Zhong Ye also saw it, but his direction was wrong, no matter how hard he tried. Also just futile.

Right now, Zhong Ye still couldn't see any clues about who influenced Zhang Xiyu and brought about that kind of change in him.

However, the scope of the target is not large. That person needs to know Zhang Xiyu and have a good relationship with him, and be able to discuss political matters with him. Only in this way can Zhang Xiyu's ideas be affected.

There are not many such people around Zhang Xiyu, and it is not difficult to investigate it all over again, but Zhong Ye doesn't want to startle the snake, and needs to use other things as a disguise.

Zhong Ye is a supervisory censor. Although Zhang Xiyu has returned to the capital, whether the emperor will reuse him requires him to investigate and report Zhang Xiyu's reputation in Jingzhou—this is his current disguise.

The emperor did issue such a mission to him, but his real purpose was to find out who influenced Zhang Xiyu. If that person could influence Zhang Xiyu, would he be able to influence other people?

After wandering around the government office for two more times and questioning a few officials, Zhong Ye left the yamen and came to the street to interview ordinary people.

The common people are very enthusiastic towards Zhong Ye, but they sometimes complain about why he doesn't continue to be their prefect, to which Zhong Ye mostly just smiles and won't answer.

Contrary to the treatment of Zhong Ye, the people's attitude towards Zhang Xiyu was overwhelmingly negative.

When Zhong Ye set up a new government team, he selected all locals, and the officials all had family members. Before Zhang Xiyu left, they couldn't say anything, but after Zhang Xiyu left, they could freely complain with their families and work under Zhang Xiyu. The difference between working under Zhong Ye and working under Zhong Ye.

Most of the common people are relatively slow in the face of changes, not to mention that Zhang Xiyu's actions only caused Jingzhou's industry and commerce to decline slightly, and have not affected the public for the time being, so they did not know what changes had taken place in Jingzhou during Zhang Xiyu's management. The family members of the family exposed the news, and they suddenly realized.

Since then, people's impressions and evaluations of Zhang Xiyu have plummeted.

After discovering this, Zhong Ye was thoughtful.

Afterwards, he visited the chamber of commerce in Jingzhou City and several families that had not been crushed by him, and wanted to see what impression they had of Zhang Xiyu.

To his slight surprise, these people's impression of Zhang Xiyu was even worse than their impression of him.

Not to mention businessmen, the few families that were not regarded as enemies by Zhong Ye naturally had no major problems, but after Zhang Xiyu came to power, he began to target these aristocratic families everywhere.

"Lord Zhong, I only have one word for that person surnamed Zhang—stupid!"

Zhong Ye is now visiting the Wei family, and the patriarch of this family is complaining to him: "That person surnamed Zhang is extremely difficult to deal with us. He just became the magistrate for a few days, and started to trouble us indiscriminately, but we You have always stood by His Majesty's side and treated the people well, you know that!

"We also told that person about this matter at the beginning, but he ignored it and wanted to beat us to death. How can we reason? We must stand on the opposite side of His Majesty and stand on the same line as other families. Is it on the front line?"

The head of the Wei family was furious, but Zhong Ye got an important message from his words.

"You mean, just a few days after Zhang Xiyu became the prefect, he started to trouble you?" Zhong Ye picked up the brush and asked seriously, "Can you tell me the exact date?"

"The fifth day? Or the sixth day?" The head of the Wei family thought for a while, but finally shook his head, "I can't remember, anyway, I only remember that Zhang Xiyu started to trouble us a few days after he became the magistrate. "

Looking at the ink marks on the paper, Zhong Ye fell into deep thought.

After a while, he raised his head, put away the paper and pen, smiled and bowed to the head of the Wei family, "Thank you for your cooperation."

The head of the Wei family also returned a salute, and the two exchanged pleasantries before Zhong Ye left the Wei family compound.

Zhang Xiyu's change may have occurred on the fifth or sixth day after he became the magistrate. At this time, including Zhong Ye, the officials of the Jingzhou government began to gradually get used to the new magistrate, so people only regarded his temperament change as a The truth was revealed, and he didn't think about other aspects - the same is true for Zhong Ye.

One step closer to the truth...

Zhong Ye looked up at the sky and found that it was getting late, so he temporarily put down his investigation work and returned to the government office.

He still lives in the backyard of the government mansion. Originally, he wanted to move out, but Situ Kong asked him to stay, because he wanted to ask him for advice when there was something he didn't understand.

However, as Situ Kong became more proficient in the prefect's work, the number of visits became much less, and Zhong Ye was planning to move out of the government's backyard when.

During dinner, Zhong Ye and Dai Lila mentioned this matter.

Delilah frowned and hesitated for a moment: "...Mr. Zhong, I think there is one person who fully meets the criteria you gave."

Zhong Ye, who was slurping his food, stopped and suddenly raised his head.

After swallowing the food in his mouth, Zhong Ye asked seriously, "Who?"

"I don't know his name, and I only met him once." Dai Lila shook her head, recalling the scene when she ran into Zhang Xiyu at the trade fair.

At that time, she didn't know that the man was here to take over as the magistrate of Jingzhou, so she just kept it in her heart as a more interesting person.

Therefore, her memory of the figure following Zhang Xiyu is also very vague.

"I just remember that that person should be Zhang Xiyu's servant!"

(End of this chapter)