Nowadays, counties in the Song Dynasty are divided first by location, Jingxian, Jixian, Wangxian, and Qinxian; and then by population, they are divided into Shangxian, Zhongxian, and Xiaxian.
In Jing County, there are six county captains, who are divided into six divisions; in Ji County, there are two county captains in upper counties; and in middle and lower counties, there is one.
Yuhang County, where Li Yong was the governor, was Ji County. Now Qingfu County, where Li Xia is the county captain, belongs to Xia County.
Although Zhubo is only one level higher than Xianwei, Jixian and Xiaxian are not the same.
First of all, there are very few officials in the lower county.
At the founding of the Song Dynasty, it was stipulated that for counties with more than 1,000 households, there would be a county magistrate, a chief bookkeeper, and a county captain. If the population was less than 1,000 households, the county magistrate would also be in charge of administrative affairs, or the administrator would be concurrently in charge of county administrative affairs.
For more than two hundred years, the world's population has been increasing, but it has become a common practice that there are not enough county officials.
Qingfu County used to have only county magistrates and county captains.
With the annexation of Dali by Mongolia, its strategic location became important. Two years ago, the imperial court added a new governor named Fang Yankai.
Soon after, the three-year term of the original county captain had expired and he was transferred to another place. He was in charge of Bo Fang Yankai and also took charge of the county captain's affairs. The matter was handled very appropriately, and the court never appointed a new county captain.
September 11th, noon.
"The landlord is Bo, and a new county captain has arrived."
"County Lieutenant? Why didn't you receive the official letter in advance?"
"He was in a hurry to take office and came directly with an official letter. The county magistrate asked Lord Bo to meet him in court."
The person who spoke was a miscellaneous official named "Huang Shi". He was capable of doing things and was willing to study. He was about to be transferred to the Recording Department.
Fang Yankai raised his head from the papers and asked, "Did you come alone or did the state office send someone to see you off?"
"The state department sent Cao Liu, who was put under arrest, to take him to his post." Huang Shi said, "The villain has brought Cao Liu."
"Call in." Fang Yankai said.
He was in no hurry to meet in the hall.
After a while, Cao Liu entered the public room, first handed over two official documents to be delivered, and then briefly introduced the name of the new county captain.
"Li Xia and Li Feiyu." Fang Yankai murmured in a low voice and asked, "What do you think?"
"Young and handsome, you don't know the villain next to you."
"How did Zhizhou give the order?"
"The state magistrate said that in the border counties, autumn defense is imminent, and the homeowners need to be more careful."
Fang Yankai smiled, handed over two more official documents to Cao Liu, and brought a private letter with him, saying: "It's not easy for you to run errands, so you can send a message for me, and then go and collect fifty dollars."
"Yes, thanks to the landlord."
Cao Liu agreed and followed Huang Shi to get the money.
Fang Yankai sat there, twisting his beard and thinking for a while.
Just now, Cao Liu spoke in a precise manner and never said a bad word about Lieutenant Li. This shows that they got along well from Xuzhou to Qingfu County and Li Xia had some tricks.
He had the means but was not favored by Zhizhou. From this, it can be inferred that Li Xia's backers did not have the same political views as Shi Zhizhou.
Young and handsome, with no fame, he should be a traitor and a lackey...
After thinking about this, Fang Yankai stood up and walked towards the lobby.
In the hall, the county magistrate Jiang Chun was sitting at the top, talking to others.
Fang Yankai looked around. Even though he was prepared, he was still stunned for a moment.
This is too young, no wonder Shi Zhizhou specially sent someone to explain.
Isn’t it ridiculous to appoint such a young and inexperienced person as an official?!
"Zhengshu, Zhengshu." Jiang Chun called Fang Yankai's calligraphy, appearing very close to him, and asked with a smile: "Are you stunned?"
"Yes, such a young talent is rare in life."
"Come, let me introduce you to the new county captains, Li Xia and Li Feiyu. They were given names by the emperor and made an unusual appointment. They are extraordinary."
After Jiang Chun finished speaking, he introduced Fang Yankai to Li Xia.
"This is Bo, the landlord of our Qingfu County. He was a Jinshi in Gengxu years. In his early years, he worked in the mansion of Marshal Yu Jie and served as a county captain in Sui County. Don't think that Bo, the landlord, is a scholar and he also shot and killed Mongolian soldiers. You
Before taking office, all county captain affairs were concurrently handled by the landlord..."
"The landlord is very polite." Li Xia said.
In terms of resume, he knew that he was far behind Fang Yankai.
It’s no wonder that Zhizhou Shijun hated the fact that the court sent a young man to stir things up for no reason. A mature and experienced boss could do both the job well, so why would he send a half-grown child?
Fang Yankai smiled and said, "It will be great if Lieutenant Li is here, and I will be much more relaxed."
"I also ask the landlord Bo Duoduo to give me some advice."
Jiang Chun said: "Hey, Lieutenant Li doesn't need to be too polite. The three of us are Qingfu's parent officials. We each perform our duties and work together to cooperate."
Li Xia said: "Xia is young and has little knowledge. If there are any mistakes in the future, please ask the county magistrate and the Lord not to blame."
Jiang Chun waved his hand and smiled, saying: "Everyone around Li County Lieutenant is nice, but he is too polite. You have worked hard all the way, how about arranging a place to stay first?"
Li Xia said: "I don't have much work to do here, and Xia doesn't dare to slack off on official duties. Why don't we hand over the job as soon as possible?"
Jiang Chun and Fang Yankai looked at each other and smiled silently.
"That's fine. I'll send someone to take your staff to clean up your apartment, and you can hand over the official duties according to the official letter. By the way, you came in a hurry and didn't have time to prepare... Tomorrow night, I'll prepare some food and wine to welcome you."
"Thank you, magistrate."
Seeing Fang Yankai and Li Xia leave, Jiang Chun still sat there, taking a slow sip of tea and muttering to himself.
"I don't even bend my waist, I think I am the prince of the dynasty..."
The residence arranged for Li Xia is the one where the former county captain once lived. It is not far from the county government office. It crosses Shimen Street and turns around an alley called Shimen Lane.
Han Chengxu and others followed the miscellaneous clerk Martin Gui and soon arrived in front of the house.
"This is it." Martin Gui said, "After Lieutenant Lu was transferred, it has been vacant for two years. I will bring someone to clean it this afternoon..."
Before he finished speaking, the door of the house was pushed open, and two men walked out, one with one eye and the other with a broken arm.
You can still hear the shouts of many people in the house.
Liu Jinsuo was stunned and said: "Didn't you say it has been vacant for two years?"
Martin Gui hurriedly asked the two people: "Hey, Bao San, Jiang Fan... why do you live here?"
"Hey, you old man, we just drank together yesterday, don't you know where we live?"
"Isn't this where Lieutenant Lu lived?"
"Look what you said, inside the government office, of course the county captain lives in the government office, why would he live here? What's going on...Brother, don't go out, they are going to rob the house."
With a "bang" sound, the two of them returned to the house and closed the door.
Martin Gui scratched his head, turned to Han Chengxu and said, "This is strange. Lieutenant Lu clearly lived here back then... Why don't you ask Mr. Han to stay for a while, and I'll go back and ask for details before coming back."
After he finished speaking, he ran away quickly.
Liu Jinsuo scratched his head, his face full of confusion, and said: "What's going on?"
Han Qian said: "He will not come back again."
"ah?"
Han Chengxu sighed and said: "I have been thinking about this before. Qingfu County is a lower county, and the county government house should only be enough for two chief officials."
Han Qi'an said: "Qingfu County has no owner, so the house should be the county magistrate and the county captain lives there."
"Didn't you hear what he said? The former Lieutenant Lu moved out, so the landlord has some tricks up his sleeve."
"Is it because Alang just rejected the county magistrate? Then what attitude should be adopted to deal with these two chief officials?"
"Attitude?" Han Chengxu pondered, and said: "What is the attitude, does it make any difference? Can the landlord, Bo, still give up the house?"
In the public room, Fang Yankai was holding tea and said unhurriedly: "Does Fei Yu know what the job of a county captain is?"
"Inspection, anti-smuggling, catching thieves, and city defense." Li Xia said: "Palm the archers, arrest rape and prohibit violence."
"anything else?"
"If the county does not have a main bookkeeper, the county captain will also be the main bookkeeper, cashier of official property, and cancel the registration book."
Fang Yankai stopped drinking tea for a moment, put down the teacup, and said slowly: "Does Feiyu know how many households there are in Qingfu County?"
"I don't know."
"Since the fourth year of Xianping, it has been stipulated that more than 5,000 households in each county in Sichuan Gorge should have a master register." Fang Yankai said, "Last year, the number of hidden household registrations in the county was verified, and the number of households reached 5,000."
Li Xia said: "Fortunately, I can perform our duties with the landlord Bo, and we don't have to do anything we're not good at."
Fang Yankai smiled and said, "Do you know what Class Three is in the county?"
"Quick class, strong class, soap class."
Fang Yankai asked again: "What are the duties of each of the three classes?"
"The fast class is responsible for catching people and handling cases; the strong class is for policing and suppressing bandits; the soap class is for guarding miscellaneous workers."
"It's shallow, it's shallow." Fang Yankai said, "Qingfu County is located on the border. It is different from other places. How can I say that it is difficult to govern the county here... I will tell you slowly when I have some free time."
"Yes, thank you very much, landlord Bo." Li Xia said, "I wonder if today we can let the city's archers, ministries, catchers, gatekeepers, soapmen, horsemen, sedan bearers, fanmen, lampmen, warehousemen, warehousemen, etc.
Waiting to meet me? Get acquainted with me first."
Fang Yankai looked at Li Xia again.
"Li County Lieutenant knows very well who to take care of."
"Know a thing or two."
"But... it's too urgent, it's too urgent." Fang Yankai sighed: "If I say slow down, I will let you get familiar with the layout of the county and understand the situation of each township, but I am afraid that you will misunderstand that I am reluctant to hand over power..."
His words were serious and thoughtful, but Li Xia suddenly asked.
"Isn't the landlord reluctant to hand over power?"
Fang Yankai was stunned.
He squinted his eyes and looked at Li Xia, only to find that Li Xia was calm, as if he was joking.
"Feiyu's spirit is so impressive. Good, good. He will be formidable in future generations."
"I don't dare to take it seriously. I am young and ill-informed. I will have to ask the landlord Bo for advice on many things in the future."
"That being the case, it's time for Feiyu to take care of more official duties." Fang Yankai said, "It's just that it's getting late today, so why not get familiar with the Zaobans first? I'll have someone take you to meet the Zaobans."
"Thank you, landlord Bo." Li Xia was still very polite.
After he left, Fang Yankai closed his eyes, seeming to feel quite tired, and murmured: "Party Ding has brought disaster to Shu..."