At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Zhuge Liang was shocked at the time.

Seeing Zhuge Liang's expression, the farmer thought he had said too much, so he quickly said that he was not hungry.

I'm not very hungry, but if I can't eat any salt, I always feel that I lack strength and can't do heavy physical work. If this continues, won't it be impossible to repair roads for the court?

Zhuge Liang's heart ached a little as the peasant looked cowering.

Zhuge Liang settled down and asked the farmers what they ate when they were building roads.

The farmer answered honestly, saying that he had two meals a day, one thin and the other dry, it was okay, he would not be hungry, but he felt that there was too little salt and his mouth was tasteless.

Zhuge Liang shook his head and asked him what to eat for dinner.

The farmer is a little unclear, so he said that the porridge and rice have a salty taste, and the dry rice is normal wheat rice.

"Actually, it's not bad, we won't be hungry, sometimes we can eat two dry meals, although there are not many days to eat two dry meals, but we big guys are also very satisfied.

Mixing barley rice with salt water is actually not unpalatable, but there is a little salt water, and the rice is not wet when mixed, and it has no taste, but there is still rice to eat, not no rice, but rice to eat. "

The man showed a naive smile: "If we can give more salt water, we can eat more comfortably and do more work."

Seeing the man's innocent smile, Zhuge Liang suddenly felt that his throat was a little dry, and he couldn't say what he wanted to say for some reason.

After a pause, Zhuge Liang spoke.

"Okay, leave it to me, I'll tell them, let them give you some more salt water, don't worry."

Zhuge Liang comforted the farmer, and the man smiled innocently and thanked Zhuge Liang for a while.

After returning to the county government office, Zhuge Liang fell into deep thought.

He clearly remembered that he personally led a group of strong men and sent them to the road construction site near Yumen Pass, and happened to meet Cao Ren, the Zhenxi general who was assisting the construction site at that time.

At that time, he remembered very clearly that Cao Ren kept him for a meal, which was not bad, with barley rice and pickles.

Cao Ren told him that Guo Peng's food standard for these road builders was three meals a day, and one meal was thin and two meals were dry.

I usually eat salted vegetables and pickles, and then give me a meal of meat every five days, which can be regarded as replenishing the oil and water in my stomach and gaining strength.

Moreover, all those who come to work will take care of food, including strong women and children of a certain age, so that the burden on the local people can be reduced during the slack season.

This is the emperor's special grant of funds, some kindness to these strong men who built roads for the country.

Zhuge Liang also specifically asked if it was the national unified standard, and Cao Ren gave an affirmative answer, saying that it was the national unified standard.

Because the workers on the road construction site worked hard, they were given three meals and one meal of meat every five days.

At that time, Zhuge Liang lamented that the light of the emperor's kindness had already shone to the western border of the empire.

As a result, it suddenly became apparent that this was not the case.

The emperor's will was very clear, but when it was carried out, some problems occurred.

Why is it that Cao Ren's construction site can eat three meals according to the standard and one meal of meat every five days, while the strong men he sent to other construction sites can't eat it?

Salt water bibimbap, what is this operation?

Is there enough salt water?

Not only that, but three meals turned into two meals?

How could this be?

Court standards changed?

When Zhuge Liang first found out, he thought about asking Cao Ren about it immediately, but he calmed down quickly.

First, they arranged for people to go to the county to inquire about whether the food and treatment of the road construction workers had changed, and then sent people to each section of the road construction site to inquire about their food conditions.

Roads are built in sections, usually with a county as the unit, and a road within a county is counted as a section, and each section of road is divided into several sections according to a certain length and terrain.

And in order to better take into account the interests of the road builders, the policy of the imperial court is that the county-level local bureaucrats are only responsible for recruiting civilian workers to the construction site, and then pick up the old people when the rotation is completed, and replace them with new ones to work again, and so on. .

Everything else is up to county officials and state officials.

For example, the arrangement of materials, the arrangement of food, the arrangement of the road construction process and so on.

These are all led by the Central Ministry of Industry, and the local state and county governments are responsible for the management and arrangement. They also send people to watch over the construction site, the army assists in the management of public security, and mobilizes the army to take charge of cooking.

Governments below the county level have no control over the issue of material allocation, so Zhuge Liang is completely out of touch with the issue of material allocation, and is only responsible for recruiting civilians.

The imperial court meant that fewer officials would deal with them, and there would be less possibility of corruption. In order to control the hands of officials, the imperial court also took great pains.

But the situation doesn't seem to be that simple.

The person Zhuge Liang sent to make an unannounced visit soon returned.

The people who came back from the Dunhuang County Mansion told him that the result of what he inquired was that the policy had not changed, and the food standard was still three meals a day and one meal of meat every five days. issued by the standard.

This surprised Zhuge Liang.

That is to say, someone obstructed it, filled their own pockets, and embezzled the materials issued by the court?

Then, the people who went to various construction sites to investigate secretly brought back something that surprised Zhuge Liang even more.

They went to the Qijie Road Construction Site from Dunhuang to Guangzhi County to observe the situation on the construction site.

Then it was found that the same situation was found on the seven-section road construction site.

Two meals a day, salt water bibimbap, not to mention eating meat, the skin of the meat is nowhere to be seen, and the salt water is not returned, just as agreed.

It is worth noting that in these places, there is either no army to manage the law and order, or the cook is not a fire-headed army, but a cook who does not know where.

Chapter 1050 One thousand sixty, you carefully stroke the joints

After further understanding, Zhuge Liang learned that the reason for this problem was that the road construction project was too large and there were too many people involved.

According to the original plan of the imperial court, the army should participate in the road construction site, be responsible for public security, assist in the management, and manage the food with the fire-headed army, so as to reduce the possibility of corruption.

However, although the policy is good, some problems have arisen in its implementation.

The imperial court had very high requirements for the progress of road construction. The original planned section-by-section repair plan was rejected. The new plan was to be rolled out in an all-round way, and many construction sites were started together to speed up the progress.

But in this way, the army is facing a lot of pressure.

The 5000 troops of the Northwest Corps have garrison missions, mopping up barbarian missions, and training missions. They cannot all be devoted to road construction projects, which would put too much pressure on the army.

Therefore, although the imperial court stipulated that every section of the road construction site must have an army to manage public security, the rice must also be done by the Huotou army.

However, in actual operation, more than half of the road construction sites with hundreds of knots in the four counties of Hexi have no army involved in the management.

This was a stipulation in the segmental road construction plan at the beginning. In the segmental construction plan, the army's participation in the manpower is definitely enough to allocate.

But after the plan was changed, the number of road construction sites and the number of civilians increased greatly, and the army did not have enough manpower to take care of it at all.

Cao Ren also understood this situation, so he could only arrange manpower on key road sections or high-risk road sections, and let the officials of the state capital and county government arrange for other places.

They didn't think there was anything wrong with it, because the situation was real and the army couldn't handle it.

Officials of the state capital and county government do not have the power to mobilize the army, nor can they mobilize the army. They can only mobilize the security personnel they can control to participate in the management of the road construction site.

But it was found that this was not enough, and there was still a shortage of management personnel, so we had to recruit people from other places to take charge of management.

Who are the people here?

Many of them are relatives of officials, family and friends.

Once this is done, the problem arises.

This group of people came from a complicated background and grew up in a complicated environment. It is hard to say what they will do. It is difficult for others to find out if they do something a little bit, and once they get on the scale, they will inevitably cover each other.

After Zhuge Liang learned of this fact, he realized that this matter was involved.

The road construction sites are mainly concentrated in the four counties of Hexi. Except for the four counties of Hexi, the roads in other places in Liangzhou have been repaired and formed, and they are connected with Guanzhong.

Therefore, the road construction project is located in the four counties of Hexi, and will be extended to the Western Regions in the future.

Not long after the four counties of Hexi were conquered, local production was severely damaged, and the materials they produced were extremely low, not even enough for food. A large amount of road construction materials had to be mobilized from other counties in Liangzhou and Yongzhou.

Yongzhou has a big head, and Liangzhou has a small head.

This is the imperial decree issued by Emperor Guo Peng to Chen Gong, the governor of Yongzhou, under the joint discussion led by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry.

There must be no mistake in asking Chen Gong to open the treasury of the Yongzhou government and provide a large amount of support for the road construction projects in the four counties of Hexi.

Food, road construction materials, transportation costs, etc., all have to be borne by Yongzhou.

Chen Gong is said to have raised objections.

He feels that Yongzhou itself has a lot of things that need to be used, and the treasury is not abundant. Moreover, he earlier supported the part of Liangzhou other than the four counties in Hexi, supported the construction of the Shu Road, and rebuilt Hanzhong County and Shangyong County. The accumulation of materials is running out.

He asked to recruit some from the Kanto to fill it, but was rejected by Guo Peng.

Guo Peng investigated Yongzhou's inventory and blamed Chen Gong, saying that everything in the warehouse must be used except for the necessary storage quota, and these things will not produce new things by themselves in the warehouse.

What's the use of dying in the warehouse if you don't need it?

Transfer from Kanto, how to be responsible for the large amount of transportation costs?

Can materials be transported directly without manpower?

Chen Gong didn't dare to raise any objections, opened the Yongzhou treasury, and used a large amount of materials to support the production and construction of the four counties in Hexi.

Yongzhou produced about 80.00% of the road construction materials, while Liangzhou could only provide 20.00%.

Yongzhou organized manpower and material resources through the state government to transport the materials to Wuwei County, Liangzhou. Mao Jie, the governor of Liangzhou, received the materials in Wuwei County, and then allocated them to the four counties in Hexi in turn. be used above.

Throughout the process, governments below the county level are not eligible to participate, and officials at the county magistrate level cannot participate.

Only government officials at the state and county levels and the people they arrange can participate, so Zhuge Liang has never known how it works here.

Of course, Sima Yi didn't know either.

The two are only responsible for contacting the township chiefs and village chiefs below to make a complete count of the strong men in each village, and then send them to each construction site according to the standard number of people. This is their task, and it is over when it is completed.

They have no other responsibilities and obligations.

Therefore, the issue of the treatment of the road builders is obviously not something they can take care of.

It's not that Sima Yi doesn't care or care about this matter, and the matter naturally happened in several construction sites under the jurisdiction of Guangzhi County.

So Sima Yi was also a little worried.

"This matter... Could it be that someone was greedy for ink? They embezzled the materials allocated by the court?"

"Judging from the current situation, there must be someone obstructing it, otherwise it would be impossible for the dietary standards stipulated by the imperial court to be artificially changed, and some places remain the same, while some places have such changes."

Zhuge Liang frowned: "Based on what I know so far, in places where the army is in charge of security and the Huotou army is in charge of food, everything remains the same without any changes, but in places where the state capital and county government are in charge of management, this is what happened. No matter how you look at it, it’s a problem.”

Sima Yi took a deep breath, thought for a moment, and said, "Kong Ming, what are you going to do?"

"This matter must be found out, and we can't pretend that we didn't see it."

Zhuge Liang resolutely said: "These folks are all residents of the counties under our jurisdiction. You and I have come forward to collect and arrange them to be sent to various construction sites to do work. Now they can't even eat salt water. If something happens in the future, who can take care of it?" start?"

"But these things are beyond our jurisdiction."

Sima Yi hesitated and said: "You and I are only responsible for recruiting civilian husbands and sending them to various places. Everything after that has nothing to do with you and me. No matter how you look at it, you and I are not qualified to intervene."

"You can't just sit back and watch something like this happen."

Zhuge Liang pursed his lips: "I will continue to send people to investigate this matter, find some physical evidence, collect some information, and then make plans, and since it may happen in the state capital or the county capital, then the state capital and the county government Facao is meaningless.

If possible, I will report this matter directly to the Luoyang Third Division and ask them to directly send someone to intervene in this matter. Luoyang coming to do such a thing is far more effective than the state or county government, so you can check it out in one go! "

"Kong Ming!"

As soon as he heard Zhuge Liang say this, Sima Yi immediately took Zhuge Liang's hand: "You stroke the joints carefully."

"What joint?"

Zhuge Liang looked at Sima Yi.

"In this matter, excluding the influence of the army, the allocation of materials was carried out by the Governor's Office of Yongzhou and the Governor's Office of Liangzhou, as well as the four prefectures in Hexi.

Then the prefects of the four counties in the four counties of Hexi further distributed the materials and arranged them directly on the construction site. Do you know which link went wrong?Through whose hand did something go wrong?You don't know these things, so you're going to investigate? "

chapter 1051 one thousand and sixty-one