The middle-aged man who ran over was Zheng Ainong, the governor of Jianzhou. He was about forty years old. He was a native of Zizhou. He was a Jinshi in the second year of Xuanhe. He was dark and thin. He was very prestigious in Jianzhou and was deeply loved by the people.
So even Zheng Ping would recommend him.
Zheng Ainong got the news about the gatekeeper Dutou. There was a man in the guard who actually carried a silver army medal. When Zheng Ainong asked about his age and appearance, his head went "buzz!". This was the county king Chen Qing. He hurriedly brought the state with him.
Officials from the county and county levels came.
"A humble position. A humble position, see the prince!"
Zheng Ainong ran forward and saluted breathlessly, and the officials behind him followed suit.
The lady who was cooking next to her was stunned. After a long while, she blushed and shouted: "Your Majesty, my house has a toilet. It's convenient to go to my house. You don't have to go to the latrine over there."
Chen Qing was a little dumbfounded. He waved his hands and said, "Thank you, ma'am. I'm not going to the toilet. I just want to know about the situation of epidemic prevention."
Zheng Ainong secretly let out a sigh of shame, as he had indeed come to inspect incognito. Fortunately, he had done a more meticulous job, so there shouldn't be much of a problem.
Chen Qing smiled slightly and said: "Thank you for your hard work, Governor Zheng. Thank you for your hard work. I have another piece of good news for you. The rebels have been wiped out. You can pack your things and go home."
The officials and the surrounding people suddenly cheered. Zheng Ainong quickly said: "Please come to the official tent to sit down, drink tea and take a rest."
Chen Qing smiled and said, "I'm just looking for a place to drink some water. Let's go!"
After a leaf of autumn, Chen Qing no longer needed to pay close attention. He followed Zheng Ainong and several state officials to the main tent, sat down on the main seat, and waved his hand, "Everyone, please sit down!"
Several state officials sat down, and Chen Qing asked: "Have your family members come out?"
Everyone was stunned. The county prince actually asked about their family members first. Everyone was moved. Zheng Ainong quickly said: "Thank you for your concern, the prince. My family members all came out together."
"That's good. I heard that Zizhou officials and their families were killed by the bandits. It makes me very sad and angry. This time I will make the bandits pay the heaviest price."
Zheng Ainong asked in a low voice: "Have all three rebel families been arrested?"
Chen Qing said coldly: "None of the three families can escape. Together with the thieves who harmed Zizhou officials, they will all be executed. Not only them, but all officials who support the thieves are not worthy of being officials and will be dismissed from office. In short, this
Now the officialdom of Bashu must be completely liquidated, and they will no longer care about the court's face as before."
Everyone understood that after this incident, Chen Qing would completely annex Sichuan and would not give it to the imperial court again. Several officials were secretly happy. They all supported Chen Qing, which meant that they would be promoted.
Chen Qing said to Zheng Ainong again: "Zheng Zhizhou, tell me what your next plan is?"
Zheng Ainong sighed and said: "Our Jianzhou cured food is very famous. Bacon, cured tofu, and pickled radish are three specialties of Jianzhou. Originally, I wanted to organize farmers to make a large number of them this year and sell them to the military as military rations. The people will also have income, killing two birds with one stone.
, but now the plan has been ruined. Now all the thoughts are on relocating the people and resuming production, and there are no other plans for the time being."
Chen Qing nodded and asked, "Who is the general judge?"
An official sitting on the left quickly stood up and saluted and said: "Liu Qin, a humble official, is appointed as the general magistrate of Jianzhou."
Chen Qing smiled slightly and said: "From now on, you will act as the governor of Jianzhou, and you will take all the people back and resettle them properly."
Everyone was stunned and looked at Chen Qing in confusion. Chen Qing said to Zheng Ainong: "From now on, you will officially serve as the prefect of Chengdu. You will officially take office tomorrow. I will arrange for someone to go to the prefect's office to announce it."
Zheng Ainong was filled with surprises and quickly stood up and bowed, "I will definitely live up to the love of the county king in my humble position, and I will definitely inherit the legacy of Magistrate Li."
Chen Qing shook his head, "I don't agree with many of Li Yi's ideas. You don't need to inherit his legacy, just bring Jianzhou's attitude to Chengdu."
"I humbly obey orders!"
Chen Qing and other officials went down, and then he asked Zheng Ainong: "I know that Bashu is divided into the Sichuan-Shaanxi faction, the centrist faction, the royalist faction and the Sichuan-Li faction. How many people are there in the Sichuan-Shaanxi faction?
When the prince asked this question, Zheng Ainong was not burdened. Even the teagoers in the Chengdu teahouse could explain it succinctly. How could he not know?
Zheng Ainong smiled slightly and said: "Reporting to the prince, in fact, there is a sign of which sect is, and that is the opening of Pingcang stores in various states and counties. The Royalist faction and the Chuanli faction do not open Pingcang stores in the counties where they are located.
The more Pingcang stores are opened, the more inclined they are to the Sichuan-Shaanxi school. For example, we have a total of 14 stores in Jianzhou, but there are only six in Chengdu Prefecture, which shows that the prefect Li Yi is a centrist.
Another example is that there is no one in Hezhou, or the subordinate counties may be suppressed and dare not open it if they want to, so they can only see the state official level, but the county official level cannot see the real situation, so they have to investigate in detail.
."
Chen Qing pondered for a moment and said: "You mean to say that the number of closing stores in the county where the state capital is located can tell the tendency of the state officials, and the county officials have no autonomy."
"The county king is absolutely right. Just look at the number of liquidation stores in the county where the state capital is located, and you can see the trend. It is absolutely correct. Of course, I mean before the assassination of Chengdu Magistrate Li, and now the Sichuan Li faction has failed in the rebellion.
, there must have been a change of direction in many states.”
"I understand. Today is your last day as the governor of Jianzhou. You have to hand over the handover with Tongpan and send the people away. Tomorrow morning you will go to Chengdu to take office. You go to Zheng Ping first. Zheng Ping will assist you."
"I will definitely take care of the final consequences."
Chen Qing returned to the southern military camp and sent his own soldiers to deliver a military order to Zheng Ping. He had appointed Zheng Ainong as the prefect of Chengdu and asked Zheng Ping to assist Zheng Ainong in taking office smoothly.
At this time, Lu Gui sent someone to bring news that he had wiped out eight thousand rebels who fled west. The leader was Li Jinxiao's second son Li Yong, who had died in the melee. There were also Li Jinxiao's two nephews and fifteen members of his clan.
After being captured, 2,300 rebels were killed and 5,500 were captured. Only a small number of rebels escaped. The Song army suffered 307 casualties.
Chen Qing didn't care about victory or defeat at all. He only cared about how many casualties he had suffered. Sending 20,000 battle-hardened elite cavalry to fight a group of ragtag rebels was a humiliation in itself, but he really didn't have a worse army.
.
Fortunately, there were three hundred casualties, and the maximum number of casualties was about a hundred, which was within his acceptable range.
In the afternoon, he received news from Tang Qian that Li Jinxiao, his father and son, and his son-in-law Wu Miao had been captured. At dusk, he received another news from Tang Qian that they had captured Zhang Jian and fourteen of his tribesmen. By nightfall,
Another scout commander, Han Song, sent news that they had captured Wang Dongyuan and his nephews, a total of fifteen people.
Chen Qing no longer had any interest in interrogating these traitors. He immediately ordered the captured traitors Li Jinxiao, Wang Dongyuan, Zhang Jian and their nephews to be beheaded in public in Caishikou, Chengdu. A few days later, he also beheaded the captured rebels in Zizhou.
There were 355 thieves who killed Zizhou officials and their families, and all the remaining prisoners of war were sent to the mines for three years.
Chen Qing also issued three salt and iron orders at the same time. First, he announced that all salt wells in various states and counties were owned by the Sichuan Road Salt and Iron Transfer Department and were not allowed to be owned by private individuals. Anyone who dug salt wells without authorization would be punished with death. Second, he sent troops to Sichuan.
Fight against salt lords all over the country, and all salt lords will be executed; thirdly, all officials who collude with salt lords will also be arrested and executed.
These three salt and iron orders were placed in one place, scaring private salt dealers and officials who colluded with them to flee. This was actually an attack on the Sichuan Li faction, basically catching them all in one fell swoop.
Then there are the royalists, and it is very simple to deal with them. They are all dismissed from office because their political performance is not up to standard.
Of course, this could not be accomplished with just one order. The Supervision Department and the Civil Affairs Department dispatched by Chen Qing were busy until the end of the year before they removed all officials from dozens of prefectures and counties, and then promoted officials from Sichuan and Shaanxi to take over their posts.
As for the suspension of the implementation of the decentralization agreement with the imperial court, it was very simple. Chen Qing ordered the armies to set up checkpoints on the road to Shu and refused to allow the imperial court's messengers and officials to enter the Sichuan Road. The imperial court completely lost power over the Sichuan Road.
Regarding the imperial court, Chen Qing still wrote a very sincere memorial and sent it to Lin'an and handed it to the emperor Zhao Gou. He believed that the current decentralization measures were used by thieves and seriously harmed the interests of the people, so he had to suspend the current decentralization measures.
The decentralization agreement will be considered for re-implementation when the time comes.
