On June 20, in the early morning, Emperor Dade announced that Lu Baiting, the imperial official, would be the magistrate of Longyang County, and Xuanyuan Zichi, the king of Jin, would be the new imperial official. Longyang County was the original site of Longdu three hundred years ago. Today,
Longyang County is also the most important city among the six counties of Longdu in Longdu Prefecture. It is responsible for the north-south supply and grain transportation of Longdu City. Even the Xuanwu Legion is stationed around Longyang County. Longyang County and Longdu City
There are two main roads in the middle, one is an official road for people to walk, and the other is a waterway for ships to transport goods. Most traders from the north and south use waterways to transport goods. The annual fee for waterway transportation is only a large sum of money, so all goods in the country are
No other county in the country is as wealthy as Longyang County. This Longyang County has also become the first among the 100 counties in the country, and its importance is even more important than that of remote magistrates or military envoys.
Lu Baiting became the magistrate of Longyang County, which immediately aroused the jealousy of many people, and some people took the opportunity to start wooing him. They never expected that an imperial official in the imperial study room would now become the head of a hundred counties. It is conceivable that in two years,
In ten years, he will definitely occupy the position of left and right. If we establish a good relationship now, we can look forward to the future.
Xuanyuan Zichi was also secretly delighted to be serving as an imperial officer. Although there had never been any precedent for a member of the royal family to serve as an imperial officer, wasn't he the first person in history? The young Xuanyuan Zichi couldn't help but feel proud. In fact, this imperial officer's
The official position is less than six ranks. The so-called imperial official is someone who stood beside the emperor in the early dynasty.
Next to it, he read memorials for the emperor, conveyed messages to the emperor, and sang slogans such as going to court and retreating from the court. Although the imperial officer's position was not high, he was the closest person to the emperor and the emperor's confidant. It was held by the King of Jin
Royal officer, this shows that the emperor has allowed the thirteen-year-old King Jin to have access to political orders.
But the ninth prince's appointment as an imperial official was equivalent to a disguised announcement to the emperor that the great emperor was really dying. The emperor was weak and there was a plague in Longdu. At this time when people were in panic, Zhang Xiaowu received the imperial edict to go to Beijing to see the emperor.
Zhang Xiaowu hurriedly asked the imperial envoy for the reason, and the new envoy smiled and said: "The eight epidemic prevention strategies in Saibei have aroused resonance in the capital. The emperor called you to Beijing to inquire about the epidemic prevention strategies in Saibei." Zhang Xiaowu then asked about the plague in the Central Plains.
He shook his head and smiled bitterly, saying that the plague in the Central Plains was serious, and some places were flooded.
There was drought and no rain in various places, and this year was another disaster year. The imperial envoy went all the way north through Sizhou, Yongzhou, Daizhou and Huizhou, and all of them were seriously affected by the disaster. Some fields were even uncultivated. A month ago,
In the Central Plains, 200,000 people died from the plague. Now one month has passed, and I don’t know how many people have died from the disease.
Zhang Xiaowu exclaimed: "How could the plague in the Central Plains be so serious? Even in Saibei, where the plague first occurred, it was not so serious."
Now that the plague in Saibei has disappeared, the people have resumed their daily lives, and the population of Mucheng has even increased a lot. Even Xiao Kai's wife Xingzhi gave birth to a fat son for him. Xiao Kai's son was named Xiao Wubing
, everyone laughed and said that you are using your nickname as your famous name, and you will be laughed at if you become a nobleman in the future. Xiao Kai said, my son, I can call him whatever I want, and I don't care about other people's affairs.
The imperial envoy also said that because Zhang Xiaowu went to Beijing for a pilgrimage, Xiao Kai, the general of the bus, took over the post of commander of the ghost guards. After the ghost general returned to the north of the Great Wall, he would go to the capital to take up his post. The general of the bus was just a junior officer under the Ministry of War.
, does not belong to any important department, it doesn’t matter whether Xiao Kai goes or not.
Xiao Kai was naturally willing to stay, and Zhang Xiaowu was relieved to hand over the ghost guard to Xiao Kai, so he arranged to accompany the emperor to the capital, including marching secretary Wang Yijin, army commander Ruan Qingwen, confidential battalion commander Chen Guanxi, personal guard battalion commander Xia Ming, and fifty
A personal guard, as well as two of Xiao Kai's generals, Bao Yin and Jia Siye.
Wang Yijin is responsible for managing money and logistics, Ruan Qingwen is familiar with the situation in Beijing, Chen Guanxi is responsible for intelligence information, and Xia Ming is responsible for protecting security. Bao Yin and Jia Si also went to Beijing in advance to familiarize themselves with the environment. These two people serve as Zhang Xiaowu's second generals.
A group of people have a clear division of labor.
In addition, you need to bring a large number of gifts for this meeting. In addition to the captured Inuyi armor and weapons, the most important gift is the golden armor of the Khan of Tartar.
In addition, because the local specialties of Mucheng are cowhide boots and refined salt, Zhang Xiaowu planned to bring some to Beijing to see if these items could be sold. Guan Xiang was very excited when he learned the news and immediately started making arrangements.
He put 8,000 pairs of boots on the carriage and brought 5,000 more pairs of cowhide boots for him to sell.
When Zhang Xiaowu learned about Guan Xiang's plan, he was immediately depressed. He said to himself, "I am a face-sage. What do you mean by getting me more than 10,000 pairs of boots?" He summoned him face to face and said: "Guan County Magistrate, these 13,000 pairs
Boots, do you know how many cars you have to pull?"
Guan Xiang said: "It's just eight carriages."
Zhang Xiaowu was so angry that he vomited blood: "It's just a return of eight carriages. Do you think we are going to meet the emperor, or are we going to do business?"
Guan Xiang said: "What the general said is wrong. Can't you do business while you are meeting the saint? Does doing business delay the meeting? Besides, you went to the Central Plains and got the money from selling boots. You can do some activities after arriving in the capital.
Send gifts."
Zhang Xiaowu couldn't stand him, so he had to take on this arduous task. As a result, the original four carriages hauling supplies became fifteen carriages, five of which were team supplies, and eight carriages hauled leather boots.
Two carriages were pulling refined salt. In order to protect the cargo, the original guard team of fifty people had to be expanded to eighty people.
There were three hundred people in the guard camp, and eighty of them had to be selected to accompany the general to the capital. This was a good job. Everyone wanted to accompany Zhang Xiaowu to the capital, so they approached Xia Ming one by one and asked to enter the capital. Xia Ming was so noisy that his head was pounding.
Then he asked: "You all said that you should be selected among the eighty people, so how about we compete in a competition and the top eighty people enter Beijing?"
"fair."
"most."
"We support it!"
Xia Ming held a competition in riding, archery, martial arts, strength, and literature in the general's palace. There were five competitions in total, testing horse riding, archery, martial arts, strength, and reading and literacy. The first four of them were naturally understood by everyone, but not everyone.
It's the fifth item. Why are you trying to read and write? Xia Ming said, this time you go to Beijing to face the Holy Spirit, you represent the Saibei Ghost Guards. If you enter the city and don't know Chinese characters or even know where you live, wouldn't it be embarrassing?
Show your eyes.
Everyone was convinced and began to compete according to Xia Ming's request. Zhang Xiaowu also took the opportunity to arrange the ghost guard camps and arrange operations in Saibei.
Xiao Kaidai was appointed as the Ghost Guard General, Wusong assisted in the military affairs, and Guan Xiang assisted in the civil affairs. The three lieutenants performed their respective duties. The captains and captains near each battalion had to obey the arrangements. Hu Sanwan sent people to pass on information at any time. But Hu
Thirty Wan said, "The plague in the Central Plains is serious. You should delay your departure for a while."
Zhang Xiaowu didn't take it seriously and just told everyone to run Mucheng well and not to let Quan Yi take advantage of the loopholes.