Yangchuan County

It is a prosperous city less than eighty miles away from Liangzhou City, with a large population and a large scale.

There are dozens of large and small cities under the jurisdiction of Liangzhou. Because the population, land, and taxes of each county are different, they are divided into large and small counties. Large counties generally pay the majority of local taxes.

The same was true throughout the Zhou Dynasty. Generally, the imperial court appointed the chief administrators of large counties as magistrates, mostly with the rank of fifth rank, while the chief administrators of small counties were appointed as county magistrates, all with the rank of seventh rank, which was also the lowest rank among local officials.

Regardless of whether you are a prefect or a county magistrate, the unified administration is directly under the jurisdiction of the county magistrate. This is equivalent to the fact that the immediate superiors of fifth- and seventh-grade officials are the same person.

This kind of jurisdictional system has been criticized by Song Zhilu, who believed that it greatly increased the difficulty of the work of officials at the prefecture and county levels, because officials at the prefecture and county level had to face too many trivial matters and have to worry about it.

When Song Zhilu was in the Imperial College, he often criticized this system, but his words were ignored and no one listened.

After taking the post of Beiliang Road Administrator, Song Zhilu began to reform the official administration. He divided Liangzhou, Youzhou and Shuozhou into several areas, each area consisting of one large county and several small counties.

The prefect of a large county can take charge of the magistrates of nearby small counties, and the government affairs of small counties can be handled at the prefect level as much as possible.

The county guard only needs to learn about the situation in the small county from the prefect, and there is no need to ask about every detail.

The benefits of this are obvious. Firstly, it strengthens the abilities of these prefects and cultivates a large number of talents for Beiliang. Secondly, it also greatly relieves the pressure on the prefectures and counties, freeing up state and county officials to deal with other matters.

Soon, this matter was recognized by Tong Chengxiang of Liaodong and began to be promoted in Liaodong. He used to be in charge of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and was aware of the shortcomings of the previous system.

Of course, none of this is done openly, and there is no formal document confirming the division of small counties into large counties, because this kind of thing is under the control of the imperial court, and it doesn't matter if you just say a brief history of the district.

The officials in the Ministry of Civil Affairs may have heard about these things, but they turned a blind eye and pretended that they didn't know.

The Yangchuan County in front of Chenyue and Ma Ling'er is the so-called big county. Just from the flow of people coming and going at the city gate, you can tell that this is far from a remote small county.

Yangchuan County is located on an important transportation road, with access to dangerous border passes such as Wuguan to the north, direct access to the capital of Liangzhou to the east, Shuozhou to the west, and access to the Central Plains to the south for transporting goods.

Moreover, there are no mountains in Yangchuan County and the terrain is flat, so the official road is very spacious. Many merchants from the Central Plains entering and leaving Liangzhou will take this road, using Yangchuan County as a distribution center, and then sell their goods throughout Liangzhou.

This made Yangchuan County more prosperous and more merchants gathered there.

It's the New Year's Eve, and the New Year's Market in the city is also one of the best around here. It can be said that everything the people need can be bought here.

Today, Chenyue wanted to take Ma Ling'er to visit the Yangchuan market. After all, he had been familiar with the Yangchuan County market since he was a child, but it was a pity that he didn't have the opportunity to go there.

Ma Ling'er glanced at Yangchuan County in the distance, then at the soldiers accompanying him behind him, and then blinked in an odd way:

"Shall we just go shopping today?"

"Okay, I'll listen to you." Chenyue chuckled, waved his hand and said to Xu Luo: "You can stay outside the city for now, we will be back when it gets dark."

"No!" Xu Luo agreed without hesitation, expecting that there would be no danger in broad daylight.

Immediately following Chen Yue, he took Ma Ling'er and rode a horse together, slowly rushing towards the city gate.

…

"Take a look. The fine silk and satin are shipped from Yangzhou."

"Fresh pork and beef were all just killed this morning. They are cheap and delicious!"

"If you are buying New Year's goods, look here. Everything you need is here."

…

As soon as the two of them walked into the market, the sound of hawking came roaring, almost shattering their eardrums.

Compared with the small markets between towns like Tiankoupo, the market in Yangchuan County is undoubtedly larger in scale, and the quality of the goods sold has also risen a lot. At least this kind of silk and satin shipped from Yangzhou

You will never see it in Tiankoupo.

Most of the people who buy things in Tiankoupo are mountain villagers, ordinary people. They only want to buy something affordable and useful. They only buy things like new year's goods once a year. But in Yangchuan County, it's different. Not only do they have cheap ones

The more expensive ones, most of the customers are those who have some spare money in their pockets.

Seeing the bustling crowd on the road, Chen Yue felt a headache, but Ma Ling'er had a great time shopping, looking at this shop and that stall.

After a while, there were several bulging cloth bags on the horse led by Chen Yue, which were all purchased by Ma Ling'er for the palace, as well as good wine for the two old people.

The few silver coins in Chen Yue's pocket flowed out like running water. This time, King Liang unexpectedly did not feel distressed, but went shopping with Ma Ling'er honestly. He knew that Ma Ling'er could only live this kind of life in a year.

I haven't encountered it a few times.

"Shop, how do you sell this?" Ma Ling'er picked up a piece of brocade and asked enthusiastically.

"Two liang of silver is enough. The girl has really good eyesight. This is the best stuff shipped from Yangzhou!" The shopkeeper wearing a velvet hat greeted him with a smile.

"Two taels, it's so expensive~" Ma Ling'er's face drooped all of a sudden. She was calculating how much money she had spent today, and she kept gesturing with her hands on Chen Yue's body. What was she planning to do with this piece of silk?

Bought to make warm clothes for Chen Yue and the two old people.

"It's expensive, how about half the price?" Ma Ling'er started haggling.

One tael of silver could be exchanged for one tael of copper coins, and Ma Ling'er cut off half of the tael in one go.

"Hey, this girl is joking. How can I bargain like this? I'll go around fifty cents at most." The shopkeeper waved his hand repeatedly.

Chenyue stood by and watched Ma Ling'er bargaining with great interest, with no intention of interrupting.

"Yangzhou silk and satin are good, but they are not considered top quality. They are still a bit inferior to the brocades produced by the Yangzhou Weaving Department. Isn't the workmanship too fine?" Ma Ling'er opened her eyes and took her time.

He said: "This way, it's two hundred cents cheaper, and I want it!"

Chen Yue almost couldn't hold back the last wave of his hand.

The store owner was stunned for a moment. He hesitated for a while and then said with a wry smile: "I didn't expect that the guest officer is an expert and knows the goods well. OK! Can I wrap it up for you?"

"Okay! Pay!" Ma Ling'er jumped up excitedly. In fact, this brocade is worth two taels of silver. If you buy it, you will make money.
Chapter completed!