"When we serve as officials, it is our personal responsibility to ensure peace under the rule, and bullies will never be allowed to run rampant. Illegal salt must be paid, and murderous cases must be investigated. This is my consistent position..."
Jiang Chun and Fang Yankai felt helpless as they watched Li Xiayi say this sternly.
They had seen the dozen or so bloody corpses and fully understood what Li Xia was doing.
But you can't say, "Li Feiyu, you don't have to tell us these high-sounding things, your acting is very fake." I can only sigh with emotion while stroking my beard.
"Yes, such a violent and unruly salt owl bully cannot be tolerated."
"Feiyu has done a good job. It's time to get rid of this beast and bring peace to the country. This county will ask you to investigate the illegal salt sales."
Jiang Chun said casually, thinking that this was the end of the matter...
The verdict was that the salt lords from Junlian Prefecture came to Qingfu and committed mischief. Fortunately, the county dealt with it promptly and did not let these thieves from other places continue to cause trouble.
This is very good, and it is a success.
Although Fang Yankai didn't like Li Xia's methods, he felt that the outcome of the matter was not bad...
The next moment, the two of them heard Li Xia say again: "It's a pity that the salt lord Wu Tong is still running rampant in Junlian Prefecture, but please don't worry, county magistrate and chief secretary, I will go to Junlian Prefecture tomorrow to exterminate him."
"No!"
Jiang Chun and Fang Yankai shouted in unison.
"Wu Tong is a military attache of the Song Dynasty, in charge of the Tibetan soldiers in Lianzhou, you have no right to deal with him, and his division is unknown..."
"What if the barbarian rebellion in Junlian Prefecture is triggered and it gets out of hand..."
Li Xia glanced at the two of them and said, "Isn't it the county magistrate and the chief clerk who have been persuading me to suppress the salt owl?"
Jiang Chun hurriedly pulled Li Xia into the public house. He stopped showing off and said, "Feiyu, can you please stop making trouble? This matter is related to the conflict between the two places and is by no means a trivial matter."
At this point, he lowered his voice and said: "Let me tell you, there must be a backer behind Wu Tong. You and I can take care of the people, so why bother with Junlianzhou?"
"I won't argue with the county magistrate or the chief registrar, just say one word."
Li Xia took away Jiang Chun's hand from his body, turned around and walked out, leaving a faint sentence.
"I have soldiers in my hands, you can't stop me."
In the public room, Jiang Chun and Fang Yankai looked at each other and didn't know what to say.
Liangwai, Jiang Chun sighed.
"Let him go. He must have taken Wu Tong's money and wanted to kill him."
Fang Yankai said nothing and sighed secretly in his heart: "If only that was the case..."
No one in Qingfu County can influence Li Xia's decision. Regardless of prestige, achievements, backers, etc., just saying that he has soldiers and money is enough to take charge of Qingfu.
With Jiang Chun, Fang Yankai said that it was to inform them to give them face, rather than to discuss with them.
After leaving the county government office, Li Xia went to the barracks and ordered Luhu, Xiongshan, Wu Ang, and Yuchun to follow him to Junlian.
Now that the Chinese New Year has just passed, the number of troops has not yet been fully recruited, and there are only more than 220 people in the four hundred-man squadrons.
Wu Tong brought 200 people to Qingfu County to hold the place, so there was almost no advantage in terms of numbers.
Li Xia, however, did not feel as excited as when he faced off against Wu Liang. He knew himself and his enemy, and calculated with intention and intention. He actually felt that this battle was not very interesting.
Of course, he will still go all out. This is the mentality that years of competition have given him. When a lion fights a rabbit, he will also use his full strength.
Speaking of which, the whole process of seizing private salt was not difficult for Li Xia, it was just too cumbersome.
Therefore, he has to use Yan Yunyun and Jiang Fan to do the work...
"Alang, we have taken over the Yin family's salt business; the Wu family's private salt in the county has also been confiscated; Lu Wenyang's widow has also agreed to sell the remaining salt to us. In the Qingfu area, our family is the only one who still has money.
Selling salt."
At night, Li Xia came back from the barracks and met Yan Yunyun and Jiang Fan. Yan Yunyun seemed very excited and kept talking.
"This time we spent less than 10,000 guan, but we have obtained salt worth more than 100,000 guan from the Lu and Yin families. Please rest assured, Alang, there is no evidence left. We..."
Li Xia suddenly raised his hand and said: "Sixty cents per pound, sell it at this price, and filter out the sand and ash in the salt."
Yan Yunyun was stunned, thinking that if this was the case, the salt would not be worth more than 100,000 yuan.
"But we are official salt..."
"I don't care whether it's official salt or private salt." Li Xia said: "From now on, we will sell salt without sand, for sixty cents per pound."
"Alang, if this is the case, then when this batch of official salt is sold out, we will lose money in the future."
"Then no more official salt will be taken from now on." Li Xia said, "I will kill Wu Tong tomorrow. Jiang Fan will go with me and hand over all the salt wells I explored last time."
"yes."
"After the salt wells are seized, Yan Yunyun, you go to Junlian Prefecture and take control of them. After the official salt in hand is sold, we will sell the private salt."
"Yes." Yan Yunyun said: "We sell official salt and private salt together... But there is one thing. The Lu and Yin families buy salt from Tuijing Supervisor. If this is the case, it will only offend the salt official of Tuijing Supervisor.
.”
Before Li Xia could speak, Han Chengxu said, "This is not your concern."
"My daughter understands."
Yan Yunyun lowered his head, feeling very reluctant to sift out the sand and ash in the official salt. Not to mention the time and effort it took, he lost tens of thousands of dollars in profits a year.
As soon as the idea came to her mind, she only heard Li Xia say something lightly.
"If I find a grain of sand in the salt you sell, you know what will happen."
Yan Yunyun was startled, his hands shook unconsciously, and he hurriedly said: "I would never dare."
She glanced at Li Xia quickly, then lowered her head, feeling a little aggrieved.
If it were someone else who did this and said a few words such as "Let the people of Qingfu eat salt of their conscience", she would probably think it was sanctimonious and hypocritical.
However, Li Xia looked calm and handsome, which made her feel that her boss was compassionate, and she felt a bit of admiration for him.
"Okay, you can do business well in the future." Han Chengxu said: "As far as Alang is concerned, the people under the rule live and work in peace and contentment, and only by celebrating the talisman can the population prosper in the future. This is the top priority, and you must not dare to delay Alang's plan.
"
"My daughter understands and will not dare to cheat."
Han Chengxu nodded.
In his opinion, these are trivial matters. Li Xia is in charge of Qingfu County, and the business within the territory cannot cause big troubles. He is worried about Junlian Prefecture, so he waved to Yan Yunyun and Jiang Fan, and turned to Li Xia,
He said: "Alang, it's not difficult to kill Wu Tong. What's difficult is how to ensure that we stay at the salt field in Junlian after he dies."
"Not only the salt field." Li Xia said: "There is also the smuggling trade route of Wuchi Road. What I want is to control the entire Junlian."
"Then killing Wu Tong is useless, he is just a small patrol..."
The two of them were talking, but Jiang Fan didn't dare to listen. He stood up to go out, but saw Yan Yunyun still sitting there.
Jiang Fan winked hurriedly, as if to indicate, "Aren't you going to leave?"
Yan Yunyun ignored him and kept sitting upright.
Jiang Fan glanced at Li Xia and Han Chengxu and saw that they didn't care much about it, so he hurriedly went out.
"..."
"Take your time. The situation in Junlian is different from that in provincial areas. The magistrate is just a supervisor and has no real power. The real power in the area is the local officials of various tribes. This gives us the opportunity to secretly monitor the situation."
"Alang's intention is to support the village elder who obeys our orders?"
"Well, let's kill Wu Tong and surrender the salt well first, and then we can talk. If you extend your power, there will always be a time to deal with it... Let's do this for now. I'll look at the map and determine the ambush point for tomorrow."
Han Chengxu was too old to stay up late, so he stood up and glanced at Yan Yunyun.
Although they didn't care about her, they wouldn't talk about deeper topics in front of her.
"Do you have anything else?"
"My daughter also wants to ask her father for advice on a few small business matters."
"It's late, let's talk tomorrow."
"The daughter helps her father..."
Li Xia sat alone in the public room, marking a few times on the map with a pen. The door was pushed open again, and Yan Yunyun walked in.
"What's the matter?"
"Alang." Yan Yunyun stepped forward and whispered: "I see the room is still lit, and I want to come and light a lamp for Alang to serve tea."
"Don't come to the county government office anymore."
"The disciples are all our people..."
Li Xia turned to look at her, already displeased, with a sinister look in his eyes.
Yan Yunyun lowered her head, obviously knowing that she had done something wrong.
But she still said softly: "Alang will marry Qiaoer in the future, right? I recognized my adoptive father and he is her aunt... I am eleven years older than Alang, and my appearance has been ruined, so I will never dare to think anything wrong.
...But Alang is so lonely now, maybe he needs someone to take care of him, I..."
She was wearing a Caiyu mask today and had dressed up specially. She was facing Li Xia sideways, showing a graceful figure.
But Li Xia said: "I will not have such a relationship with my subordinates. This is a principle. Don't let me hear such words again."
His tone was solemn, and Yan Yunyun was a little scared.
But she was a little unwilling to give up. She rubbed her legs gently, bit her lip and said in a joking tone: "If the slave family knew that Alang had this principle from the beginning, the slave family might not..."
"enough."
Yan Yunyun lowered his head and asked aggrievedly: "Alang thinks I've disfigured my appearance?"
"I didn't like you when you weren't disfigured."
Yan Yunyun couldn't help but his eyes turned red after hearing this.
She didn't know what she was thinking. Maybe she felt that Li Xia was indeed worthy of her admiration and wanted to take advantage of him when no one was around. Maybe she just wanted to have a good match with the best man after being disfigured to prove herself...
…
"Go." Li Xia said: "You are disfigured and want comfort. I understand this, so I won't punish you this time, but there will be no next time. I won't give you the comfort you want. I am your superior.
I'm not your man. All I can give you is stability and a future. If you don't want it, get out."
Yan Yunyun finally cried.
"Alang..."
"What I want in using you is your talent and loyalty. I don't care what you have lost before, I only want to see how much ability you have left."
At this point, Li Xia's tone softened a little and said: "Don't indulge in the beauty of the past, and don't try to prove it with me. Everyone has disabilities these days, Bao San is blind, Jiang Fan has lost his hand,
Mr. Han has lost half his life... Be strong and go ahead."
Yan Yunyun was still crying and stretched out his hands as if he wanted to hug Li Xia, but in the end he just crawled on the ground and wiped the tears on his face with Li Xia's lapel.
After a long time, she finally regained her composure, rubbed her face against his official boots, and stood up.
"Don't worry, Alang, I really understand this time..."
All the way away from the county government office, Yan Yunyun sniffed in the night wind, and suddenly found that he had found another kind of comfort in Li Xia.
That night, it was not until before going to bed that she remembered that she had not asked Alang what he had lost...