allonlinenovel Chapter 1130 A Tough Guy with a Tender Heart
Chapter 1130 A Tough Guy with a Tender Heart
"Why are you staring at me like that? Don't you recognize me?"
After finishing his speech, Li Shaoyi returned to his resting place. His men looked at him as if he were a monster. What's wrong with their boss?
This is actually quite normal. Previously, Li Shaoyi was very strict with his troops; if any of them mistreated civilians, everyone from top to bottom would be held accountable, including the regimental commander, brigade commander, and division commander of this group. However, today, these people weren't punished; instead, they were given supplies. This made those present feel like they didn't recognize Li Shaoyi at all.
"You have truly shown us your tender side today. If this had happened before, all of you here would probably be court-martialed, including your superiors, and none of you would have fared well."
No one else spoke, but as Li Shaoyi's secretary, Wang Manli was well aware of Li Shaoyi's ways of doing things, and saying such things at this time wouldn't displease him. Other superiors might dislike their subordinates talking about them, but Li Shaoyi found something in this that helped him improve, so he was willing to join in when his subordinates discussed him—something he hadn't encountered with other superiors.
“Some things must be regulated by strict laws. But look at what just happened. It’s not that these people are willing to use this method, the problem is that they themselves can’t keep up. The responsibility doesn’t lie with them, but with the officials behind the scenes.”
Li Shaoyi was furious when he talked about it. He had already found out during the investigation. The officials in the rear knew that a new army would be established here, but when they withdrew, they took everything from the warehouses, leaving the army to use whatever was available locally.
The problem is that the army is meant for fighting wars. If you give them too many functions, how can they manage? Especially when it comes to things like sourcing materials locally, the moral character of this army is already questionable. Now, they're being asked to ask the people for money directly, which leads to all sorts of problems.
Moreover, the officials weren't taking the supplies for better fighting the war; rather, they were selling them because prices had skyrocketed, several times higher than before. They planned to buy back the supplies when prices dropped. In short, they were undermining the country, and officials of all ranks were doing it with great enthusiasm.
If those people hadn't escaped, Li Shaoyi would have ordered his men to arrest them all. In this time of national crisis, these guys only care about their own profits. If a group isn't killed off, many more will do the same thing.
"Commander-in-Chief, it's best if you don't bring up the matter of the rear officials at the meeting in Hankou. This isn't just a problem with one or two officials; the intelligence we've gathered along the way involves hundreds of officials of varying ranks. During the retreat, similar incidents occurred to varying degrees, and some were even more egregious. If you bring this up at the meeting in Hankou, you might become the target of everyone's criticism."
Wang Manli said with some concern, "Li Shaoyi's temperament is different from others. When others encounter such matters, upon hearing the names of the officials involved, they will generally stay far away. After all, this kind of thing is not a good thing; your official career needs everyone's cooperation. If everyone is on your side, then your official career is basically over."
Take Li Shaoyi's removal as commander of the Pujiang War Zone as an example. Apart from Vice Minister Wu, who was unwilling, almost everyone else in the Ministry of Military Affairs remained silent. Why was there such a neat line? It was because when Li Shaoyi was the war zone commander, he blocked all their avenues for making money and also stipulated a series of rules and regulations for them to strictly follow.
Cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents—this saying is always true, and Li Shaoyi's actions are similar. Therefore, if Li Shaoyi were to raise this issue at the Hankou meeting, some people would likely attack him even more. At that point, seeking support within the Party and the state would become even more difficult.
"You didn't need to tell me this beforehand. I'm not going to be the target of everyone's criticism at the meeting in Hankou. I've figured it out, just like you said, everyone else is black and I'm the only one who's white. So I'm already on the opposite side of them. Therefore, I won't seek any military position this time. I hope to join the Supervisory Committee."
As soon as Li Shaoyi said this, Wang Manli basically understood. Li Shaoyi wouldn't bring it up at the conference; he would take direct action. Bringing it up at the conference wouldn't solve anything; it might even serve as a wake-up call for these people.
Therefore, he could directly enter the Supervisory Commission and use his own abilities to handle these cases. If he found evidence, then he could only say sorry to them. Moreover, with Li Shaoyi's abilities, he didn't need to give face to anyone within the party and the state.
However, this would be even more excessive than proposing a solution at the conference.
Seeing the grim expression on Wang Manli's face, Li Shaoyi knew what she was thinking. But a true man has principles; he couldn't simply abandon the victory won by the soldiers on the front lines, now that so many corrupt officials were undermining the nation. He couldn't bear to stand by and watch. To do so would be to betray the lives of those who had sacrificed their lives.
The troops resumed their operations, but Li Shaoyi already knew what he needed to do. Fighting the Japanese was important, but if they didn't thoroughly eliminate their own forces, any victories they achieved would be diminished.
Since that's the case, then all the officials who fled to the rear, you'd better have clean hands, otherwise we will find them one by one, expose your crimes to the public, kill those who should be killed, imprison those who should be imprisoned, and we will not let anyone go unpunished, nor will we let the heroes die with their eyes open. We must ensure that their souls in heaven can rest in peace, and we cannot be lenient with our methods.