Du Zhongxiao stood alone in the yard, watching the bright moonlight shining on the ground, like a dream. It was late autumn, and the grass on the ground had already withered and yellow, and the moonlight was shrouded on it, as if it had fallen frost.

Han Yueniang came out and whispered to Du Zhongxiao: "Dalang, the night is cold, so let's go back to your room."

Du Zhongxiao whispered: "It's okay, I'm irritated, let's go outside."

Han Yueniang walked to Du Zhongxiao, sighed, and whispered: "I heard from someone about Tan Erniang. That woman is really pitiful. But what can I do if I live a good life except to give her some money and food? She has been in the Ma family for so many years, and she has never been to appoint officials or leave no evidence. When the official came here and wanted to deal with Ma Meng, she suddenly thought that she had to avenge her great revenge. I asked others, where is it so easy. Ma Meng is treacherous and cautious in doing things, and has no handle at all. Why did Tan Erniang recognize that her revenge can be avenged?"

Du Zhongxiao was silent for a while before saying, "Tan Erniang is a weak woman, has no knowledge, and it is useless to talk about these principles. If all cases are clear and the evidence is conclusive, the officials can handle it according to the rules. This official will be too easy to be regarded as an official. The thing that makes me most disgusted is not Tan Erniang. She is cowardly by nature and can be blamed for being bullied. What I can't let go of is Tao Shiqi. That day he was not suitable for committing a crime in the street. Although he was happy to kill his enemy, he blocked his own life. Tao Shiqi was not dead, so I could calmly deal with Ma Meng, and finally give Tan Erniang an explanation. Tao Shiqi asked for the killing, how meaningful is all this?"

Han Yueniang didn't say anything, and she didn't understand why Du Zhongxiao said so.

With a thousand years of experience, Du Zhongxiao always felt that he should be better than ordinary officials. As a commoner under his rule, Tan Erniang should have stupid power. No matter how confused she is, she should have the ability to avenge her justice instead of shirking responsibility. In fact, according to Du Zhongxiao's arrangement, he would definitely deal with Ma Meng in the end, but Tao Shiqi was really powerless. It was just that his son died. Is the final result of Tan Erniang still meaningful?

Grassroots governance has always been difficult. Don’t think that a small official position is easy to deal with if you have a low status. The county and township forces are mixed, and the official power is relatively insufficient. In many cases, you can only seek a balance. Don’t talk about this era, Du Zhongxiao claimed to have the strictest control over grassroots in his previous life, and there are many legends about the five giants in Chengguan Town. Without the support from above and firm determination, it would not be easy to cause local tyrants in that era.

Ma Meng did not have close relationships with the officials in the county. He mainly interacted with officials from the yamen, all in the prefectures and counties. We cannot take it for granted that these people have no power, and they will listen to whatever officials say. In fact, it is normal to disobey officials or even hold officials. Just think about it, in Du Zhongxiao's previous life, a wealthy and powerful local household colluded with a large number of department-level officials in the county and city, and it will be known how difficult it is to investigate. If someone is arrested, either no evidence or a witness will be found, and many cases will often end.

Of course, there is another way for officials to deter local areas, which is to impose extra-laws. It is just that in the face of collusion between public officials in the yamen, this move is not easy to use.

When Du Zhongxiao thought of this case, he felt a little heavy. He had already done his best, but he was inevitably disappointed in this way.

After sighing heavily, Du Zhongxiao said to Han Yueniang: "The night is cold, you go back to your room to rest. My heart is very confused. Let's go outside for a walk. The moon is bright and the stars are sparse. Let's take a look at the night of the Bian River."

Han Yueniang couldn't understand Du Zhongxiao's thoughts, so she had to let him go and told her to come back early and go back to her room.

Du Zhongxiao summoned Chai Xin, brought two followers out of the inspection camp.

A full moon hangs high in the sky, and a few stars are sparsely laid on the sky, looking deep and distant. Du Zhongxiao walked under the moon and unknowingly arrived on the Bian River embankment.

It was almost winter, and the water of the Bian River began to become shallower, and the boats on the river surface became scarce. Lights were hung on the boat and spread on the river surface in groups of three or three.

Standing on the river bank and looking at this scene, Du Zhongxiao felt inexplicably sad. When he came to this world, he passed the Jinshi and became an official, there was always a problem that bothering him, that is, what kind of official he was? Should he be drifting with the waves in the torrent of history, using his knowledge of his previous life to seek a smooth flow, or stand at the forefront, raise a flag to be a trendsetter, and even call the wind and rain to change the direction of the torrent.

The river flows to the sea, but in the torrent, I don’t know where the direction of the sea is, so how easy is to guide the trend. Where will history go? Can you find the direction with a thousand years of knowledge? In Du Zhongxiao’s previous life, there were several times when humans thought that they had reached the end of history. Capitalists in Europe and the United States divided the world, thought that they had found the end of history, and divided human beings into three or six levels, unscrupulous. However, in the two world wars, the rise of a red empire told the world that it was just a new starting point. The red empire thought that it had found the right path, but it collapsed in less than a hundred years, and human history went on another road.

Standing on the upper part of the river, you don’t know if there is a correct river channel leading to the sea or to a muddy swamp. Even if you have learned the knowledge from a thousand years later, you are full of productivity and production relations, capitalist socialism, freedom and equality, and you are still confused. According to the scales you learned in the past life, you think that what you do will lead society to in what direction you will go in. Knowing that productivity determines production relations, and that production relations must adapt to the development of productivity, you can tell what kind of production relations the productivity of this era needs, what factors in the production relations promote the development of vitality, and what hinder the development of productivity? Don’t be funny, think that what you have figured out has failed without exception. This is a process of complementary dynamic development, rather than digging the river channel to let you divert water into it.

Looking at the sky, Du Zhongxiao suddenly remembered a question in his previous life: Where does a person’s correct thought come from? There is only one answer, from practice, not from textbooks. Practice is essential, and dogma is just a beautiful phantom.

At this moment, a melodious sound of piano came from the river, like the sound of nature, and suddenly broke through the silence of the night.

Regardless of past and present, Du Zhongxiao is a person without any artistic cells. When he listens to songs occasionally, he cannot tell the difference between good and bad, and cannot tell the difference between elegance and vulgarity. In this world, he rarely listens to small songs, and he really can't feel that there is anything good to hear.

But when the sound of the piano came, it suddenly touched Du Zhongxiao's heartstrings, as if he had been integrated with the world.

The moon is sparse in the sky, and the surroundings are silent. Only the lights on the river dot the quiet night. The clear sound of the piano is floating in the night, like a song composed by heaven and earth, connecting the pulse of heaven and earth.

Du Zhongxiao stood in the night, immersed in the sound of the piano, completely forgetting who he was and where he was. At this time, he used to be regarded as the Jinshi exam, and the classics he memorized slowly flowed in his heart, and the sentences were beating with the sound of the piano.

"Those who know me say I am worried; those who don't know me say I want. Who is this in the vast sky?"

With the sound of the piano, this sentence is naturally recited from Du Zhongxiao, and it is exactly in line with the sound of the piano.

As Du Zhongxiao's speech fell, the sound of the piano came to an abrupt end. The breeze brought the water vapor from the Bian River and hit Du Zhongxiao's face.
Chapter completed!