Chapter 191 Canglan recovers and the entire county deploys force

Author: Traveling from the South

Chapter 191 Canglan recovers and the entire county deploys force

On May 17, Governor Lei Haomiao informed the whole state that the warships outside the territory had self-destructed, capturing nearly half of their bodies, and the state government regained its prestige.

For a time, the chief officials of various counties and counties sent congratulations one after another, including many words of loyalty.

Ranzhou's army numbered 30,000, and Chen's army was at the junction of Ruinan and Longfeng counties. The governor's envoy forcefully questioned Ruinan's military envoy Yan Luo, and the war was about to break out.

All the forces in Dingzhou, including Yan Luo, Lu Ding and other large and small forces, kept silent and did not want to rashly provoke Lei Haomiao.

But at this juncture, on May 18, Zhou Bai circulated an official document to all parties, and the Anbei Governor's Office was officially established.

What is this, a blatant provocation?

Yan Luo, who had just started to stand on his own feet and had yet to gain a firm foothold, cursed loudly, "You are not the one in front, why are you jumping like this when you have nothing to do?"

The governor was a loyal uncle conferred by the new emperor. He had received great favor from two generations of emperors and was devoted to the court.

Now he is bringing the power of victory to suppress the situation in Dingzhou. You must provoke him.

In fact, who doesn't know that the Governor is most likely just trying to show off, and if he continues to fight, no one will get any benefits.

How much manpower and material resources were invested in destroying the extraterritorial general ship in Longfeng County.

As a major cultivator in the Yangshen realm, True Lord Shao Yuan is a being who can suppress a sect and suppress the luck of a great state.

Even he was seriously injured in this battle and could not come out of seclusion. It was difficult for the state army, including the Taoist priests, to gain favor.

Just how huge the number of those killed and wounded in battle was, aside from the fact that the state army was exhausted and the members of the Taoist corps were in urgent need of time to adjust their breathing and recover, this can all be seen on the surface.

So why did Yan Luo still keep his eyebrows down after becoming independent? Because he knew that the governor would not take action easily, at least not now.

As for Zhou Bai taking the initiative to provoke, that's really not the case.

When I received the news that the state army was marching north, the county dynasty had just ended. It was just a coincidence.

He still did not expel any court officials in the Anbei Governor's Mansion, nor did he prohibit any official contacts with the court. This was just a declaration.

Of course, Zhou Bai did not explain to the governor.

If you are willing to acquiesce, then everything will be fine for the time being. If you insist on suppressing it, then give it a beating.

The main thing is that, based on the information from various sources, the state government really has no conditions for war.

There are eight counties in Dingzhou: Biancheng County, Pinghe County, Xingyun County, Yongquan County (Dingxi), Bei'an County, Ruinan County, Longfeng County, and Dingzhou County (Dingdong).

The other military state, Cangbei County, which belonged to Dingzhou but was under the direct jurisdiction of the imperial court, now only exists on the map.

Among the four counties of Dingxi, the Lu Ding family is the dominant one and now basically controls the two counties of Pinghe and Xingyun. However, there is still a foreign warship entrenched in it, which is difficult to eradicate.

Yongquan County is the richest in Dingxi, but due to being affected by Daizhou's rebellion, the county is also in chaos. All forces are involved, and the state government can only maintain basic control over Yongquan County.

Biancheng County, as the name suggests, is located on the border, with grasslands or deserts on three sides, making it extremely barren.

As for the four counties of Dingdong, Zhoubai of Beian County, Yanluo of Ruinan County, and Longfeng County, most of them were corrupted by the presence of general ships.

At a glance, you can see that the governor, who was originally thought to be extremely powerful and difficult to resist, can only barely control half of the territory.

And among them, Biancheng County is an "enclave", Longfeng County still needs support from Dingzhou County, and only Yongquan County can be self-sufficient.

In other words, the only thing that Lei Haomiao can fully control and rely on to suppress the local area is Dingzhou County, the largest and richest base.

This is also similar to the pattern in Zhou Bai's memory of his previous life. Lei Haomiao, the governor of Dingzhou, followed the imperial court's policy and stuck to the foundation to wait for the right time.

If your court only wants the central region, or even only the central state, then he can only want the Dingzhou County.

Zhou Bai, who knew the inside story, really wasn't worried about Lei Haomiao going crazy unless he suddenly changed his personality.

On May 20, when the state government still had no response to the public statement of the Anbei Governor's Office, Zhou Bai "submitted a letter" to Lei Haomiao, reminding the state government to pay attention to the drought and not to engage in war without authorization.

Such a light letter, without even any sign of surrender, Lei Haomiao actually used it to step down.

On May 23, 30,000 state soldiers evacuated from the border of Ruinan County. The state government sent a message to all counties to pay attention to protecting people's livelihood and resisting severe drought.

Zhou Bai's letter really reminded Lei Haomiao that a severe drought will follow a severe flood. This year, it has not rained in Dingzhou for two consecutive months.

During the spring planting, the Dragon King of Ningjiang had already helped, diverting water vapor from the Ningjiang River to rain in Dingzhou so that the spring seedlings could survive.

The continuous military disasters and major droughts that caused the most concern during the peacetime were also deliberately ignored by people.

But the hero who really wants to run the place cannot ignore it no matter what.

The summer harvest is around the corner, and production is about to be reduced again. If we continue to fight, the consequences of running out of grain reserves...

For a time, drought relief and food rescue became the main theme in Dingzhou.

Bei'an County is not connected to the Ningjiang River, and the drought is more obvious. The reduction in summer harvest should have been a foregone conclusion, but Zhou Bai had already anticipated this severe drought and dug countless weirs and ponds to store water.

The former county governor Yin Mu is a person who listens to advice. Even if other counties do not do as well as Pingcang, it can still be regarded as a major water conservancy construction project.

Originally, people like Lei Haomiao and Lu Ding knew well enough that even if there was a drought, they could get through it relying on the Ningjiang River.

But the rules of heaven and earth are automatically balancing water vapor, and during this period of time, heaven cannot issue rain decrees to intervene.

The water in the Ningjiang River evaporates much faster than before, and before June, the water level has dropped ten feet.

In order to protect the source of water veins from serious losses and successfully survive the severe drought, Ningjiang Dragon King no longer supplies water vapor unconditionally.

The amount of water flowing out of each branch has a quota, which cannot guarantee basic irrigation of all acres, especially in areas far away from the Ningjiang River and out of reach of the priesthood.

This made the government, powerful forces, and families very anxious. While they were offering sacrifices to the Dragon King Temple, they were searching everywhere for other water sources.

Lu Ding, for example, even directly offered a reward. Anyone who could provide the location of springs, underground rivers, nameless streams, etc. would be given an official title and rewarded with silver.

After the summer harvest, there will be an autumn harvest, and there should be a severe drought throughout the first year of Tongzhi, so Zhou Bai will not rest on his laurels.

The water storage in various counties will definitely not be able to sustain the autumn harvest. At that time, is it difficult to ask the Dragon King for help every day?

The water system is blocked. In the absence of heaven's decree on rainfall, every time Ningjiang Dragon King comes to rain, it will consume a lot of divine power and the source of Ningjiang's water veins.

It’s okay to ask Him to help you once or twice, but if you ask Him for help any more, you just don’t know what to do.

However, the Dragon King cannot help, and there are gods in Bei'an County who can help Zhou Bai.

At least it shouldn't be a problem to ensure water supply for the fields in the vast core areas of the plains around the county.

On May 28th of the first year of Tongzhi, Zhou Bai led all the civil and military officials of the Dudu Mansion to go to Tingshan to worship the gods.

One is to offer sacrifices to the mountain god, and the other is to offer sacrifices to the water god.

At the top of Tingshan Mountain, Zhou Bai climbed up the stairs alone.

In the shrouded clouds and mist, the mountain god of Tingshan appeared for a while, but no formal sacrifice was needed to wake him up.

Because Zhou Bai couldn't avoid people when he arrived, the Qianlong Fortune who followed him was too eye-catching.

"I didn't expect that the little guy with a mean face and lack of luck in being a scholar is now the head of a county and has completed the most critical leap from dragon to carp." The words of admiration were not stingy in the mouth of the mountain god.

Zhou Bai bowed his hands and said, "Thank you to the mountain god for providing information that allowed our army to win a great victory."

The mountain god didn't take it seriously. He knew how much strength he exerted. The key was the person in front of him.

The more he observed Zhou Bai, the more he felt something strange in his heart, closeness? Even awe?

He is an innate spirit, even if he is a hidden dragon, how can he be so virtuous as to make him fear him?

The mountain god suppressed his strange emotions and asked with some confusion: "Why are you offering sacrifices here? It's not time to fulfill the agreement, right?"

Zhou Bai put his hands on his back and leaned down to look down the mountain. The gurgling stream there was getting smaller and smaller.

"It cannot be fulfilled in full, but it can be fulfilled in part."

"Using the dragon soul from the same source as me and the Canglan River as a guide, using the wishes of millions of people in Bei'an as a sacrifice, I will burn the great fortune and revive the Canglan Water God."

…

After the county was stabilized and the Anbei Governor's Office entered normal operation, Zhou Bai began to inspect the seven counties.

Not only to familiarize themselves with their own territory, but also to see if there are any shortcomings in local drought resistance, um, and to eliminate some restless people.

In order to quickly unify Ruinan County, Yan Luo compromised with the major family forces, which made some people in the Dudu Mansion look down upon him, believing that such an unstable regime would make it difficult to fight a tough battle.

However, Zhou Bai did not make many compromises. He did not engage in violent purges in the four counties in the south of the county and Yuanmin County in the north of the county.

Even though many local wealthy families had a lot of resentment, he tolerated them all.

Xuanyiwei collected a lot of "criminal evidence" during this period, including that these people secretly collaborated to resist government orders, disobey officials, obstruct the construction of militia teams, etc.

The transfer of imperial power to the countryside did, to some extent, touch upon the fundamental interests of local wealthy families.

For example, in the county north area, when many villagers have conflicts among themselves, they first go to the rural bureau to report the matter to the local squire instead of asking the "officials" to resolve the case.

Pingcang County, which has the most complete rural militia system, even the most critical grain tax, no longer recruits squires to serve as grain chiefs. All taxes are collected by retired militiamen serving as village chiefs and district chiefs in cooperation with the militia.

Zhou Bai was patrolling from north to south, and he was accompanied only by Zhou Qi, the new commander of the Xuanyi inner guards, and a group of soldiers who were selected from the army and were successful in martial arts. Their average per capita was above the middle stage of the Houtian realm.

They followed Zhou Bai on his tour, not only as thugs, but also as martial arts instructors in each county.

Whenever he arrived at a certain place, Zhou Bai would directly sit in court at the county government office and personally summon the heads of wealthy families in the county and township listed in Xuanyiwei's records.

If he is willing to come and has a good attitude towards admitting his mistake, Zhou Bai will lift it high and put it down gently according to the "crime".
To be continued...