On July 15th of the second year of Qingli, Su Jin officially took over the seal of Weizhou Prefecture from Wang Yan, who was the envoy of Jingyuan Road and also knew Weizhou. After handing over all matters, Wang Yan also left Weizhou and returned to Beijing. As early as
Shortly after Su Jin's appointment, the imperial court issued an order to recruit Wang Yan back to Beijing, and he was awarded the title of direct bachelor of Longtuge and the post of doctor of the Ministry of Punishment. Later, Wang Yan successively served as the magistrate of Guozhou, the magistrate of Hezhong Prefecture, and other positions, and finally he was promoted to the title of Prince Young Master.
It would be five or six years before Bao Zhi returned home with honor.
The Weizhou government office is located next to a square in the center of the city. This square is actually the largest military camp in the city - the Zhongying garrison. The entire Jingyuan Road area is indeed not small. It has Weizhou, Jingzhou and Yuanzhou under its jurisdiction.
, Lanzhou, Deshun and Hexi, but in fact the most important frontier state capitals are Jingzhou, Yuanzhou and Weizhou, because a north-south mountain separates Lanzhou Deshun and other places from Xixia. This
The mountain is the big snow mountain that Su Jin saw on the way. The southern foot of this mountain is called Longshan, and the northern foot is called Liupan Mountain. It is this mountain that divides Jingyuan Road into two parts, Weizhou, Yuanzhou and Jing.
The state is located on the plain at its eastern foot.
There are about 50,000 troops stationed on the entire Jingyuan Road. Weizhou is where Luzhi is located, so the number of troops stationed is slightly more, about 20,000. Weizhou is also the largest and strongest city. It is only a relative term to say it is the largest.
The whole city actually only has four main streets, two horizontal and two vertical, and the rest are alleys and alleys, which are only three miles apart from east to west and south to north. It is actually a smaller city than Luzhou.
This is quite understandable. After all, in the northwest border, a land of bitter cold and windy sand, the city is not that big. The population is not large, so the city does not need to be very big.
But that was in the past, but now it is a big trouble. In order to prevent the looting and harassment of Xixia cavalry, Fan Xiwen followed Fan Xiwen's strategy of building a city and consolidating it. People from dozens of miles around were gathered into the city. In the small Weizhou City
As a result, more than 160,000 people including soldiers and horses gathered to live there, and the whole city suddenly became a bustling market, noisy all day long.
On the second day after Su Jin came here, he took people to inspect the streets. As expected, there were very few shops in the city. Even if there were a few occasionally, they all had very few goods and the supply of goods was extremely scarce. This was not surprising. There were wars.
Bringing a large group of people here was almost robbed, let alone an echelon of merchants who did not dare to do business here easily.
The south of the city is a concentrated residential area for ordinary people. It is a mess and smelly. People with shabby clothes, yellow faces and skinny muscles stand in the alleys filled with sewage and feces with dull eyes, watching Su Jin and others pass by in silence; the children
All of them, with charcoal heads and snotty noses, followed Su Jin and others to watch the fun.
Looking at these houses, most of them are various simple shacks and mud houses, which can only serve as a shelter. To put it bluntly, they can keep out the cold and rain, and even simple wind and sand protection can't do it.
Su Jin frowned when he saw it. Wang Yan was also the envoy and had no time to take care of the affairs in the city. The general magistrate Xu Wei was responsible for them. It seemed that Xu Wei did not fulfill his duties. The city was in a mess.
Do it without any care.
"Xu Tongpan, the city is so messy, don't you want to take care of it?" Su Jin turned around and asked.
Xu Wei is a big fat man, his belly can block his feet. After following Su Jin and others for more than half of the city, he was sweating profusely and panting. All he could think about was complaining about the new young prefect who had nothing to do.
When he came to patrol the streets, a group of local officials in the government office had already made an appointment to come and see him, but he ignored them in the government office.
"Master Xu, the Master is asking you something." Chao Chao reminded him loudly.
"Oh, back to Mr. Su, I want to govern, but how to govern? There are so many people here, and it costs a huge amount of money just to feed them every day. How can I have money and materials to govern? I also know that the city is dirty enough.
It's chaotic enough, but there's nothing I can do about it even if I'm a lower-ranking official." Xu Wei looked respectful, but his tone didn't care at all and sounded impatient.
Su Jin frowned and said, "How many households are there in the city now?"
Xu Wei shook his head and said, "I don't know, but there are new ones coming every day, and many people have died of illness recently. The numbers change every day, and I can't teach people to count them."
Su Jinqiang suppressed his anger and asked: "Since we can't count, what kind of evidence do you usually use to distribute food? There is no household register or roster, how can you ensure that everyone has food, and how can you recruit them to build cities for the army?
Are you doing hard labor in the village?"
Xu Wei's face was covered with sweat, and he hesitated for a long time: "You have to ask Liu Cangsi about food and labor matters, but the lower officials have no involvement."
Su Jin said angrily: "Then what are you interfering with? Are you interfering with all national affairs? Isn't this reasonable? If you occupy the manhole and do nothing, are you, the general judge, just idle and idle all day long?"
Xu Wei's face turned pale and he lowered his head and said: "Yes, Master Su taught you that lower officials must change, they must change."
Su Jin said calmly: "You should go back to your yamen now, summon the warehouse secretary and other relevant departments to immediately register the people in the city and issue household registration books. I will give you two days. If you can't do it, pack up your bedroll and leave here.
I, Su Jin, do not raise waste under my command."
Xu Wei resisted the urge to retaliate and turned around to leave without saying a word. Su Jin stopped him and said, "Why don't you say goodbye to me and salute me when you leave? You are a scholar, don't you understand etiquette?"
Xu Wei's face turned pale and he had to raise his hands to salute, but Su Jin had already twisted his hips and walked away without even looking at him. Xu Wei stayed there in embarrassment, looked at the backs of Su Jin and others, and spat hard, scolding
He said: "What the hell, there are five people and six people. If you offend me, how long can you stay in Weizhou? Soon you will know who has the final say in Weizhou." After that, he stamped his feet and turned around.
.
Su Jin knew that he could not ask anything from Xu Wei and could only ask the people himself. The reason why he was angry with Xu Wei was because he hated his inaction. From the day he arrived in Weizhou, Su Jin could
I feel a sense of pessimism among the officials in this city, as if they are ready to run away at any time, and they do things in a confused and careless manner. Maybe they feel in their hearts that the Xixia people will come in sooner or later, and no matter how good the construction is, it will be useless.
.
What Su Jin hates the most is these people. They don't think about progress, but only think about how to avoid disasters. They look like they have done nothing. Moreover, when he sees Xu Wei's white and fat body, Su Jin becomes angry.
Let me quote from one place: "If an official is fat and the people are thin, he must not be a good official. During the reign of Li Tang in the previous dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong said, 'Although my appearance is thin, the world must be fat.' If I put it here, it would make the whole city thin.
When officials are fat, how can these people be good officials?"
The people who followed nodded frequently. Xu Wei claimed that he had served here for three years as a general judge. He could be so fat and fat under such circumstances. I am afraid it was due to pampering all day long.
When they turned the corner, there was a row of thatched houses in front of them. A tall old man bent over and stirred something on the dirt floor in the yard. When everyone came closer, they saw patches of purple vines with a lot of plant ash on them.
Don't know what's the use.
Su Jin cupped his hands and asked, "May I ask my husband, what are these things?"
The old man looked up and was startled to see a group of people standing in front of his house. Looking at the clothes of Su Jin and others, they were all members of the government. A trace of resentment and contempt flashed in his eyes, and he said angrily: "Of course the officials are not
You know, this thing is a delicacy in the world, would you like to try it, sir?"
Su Jin pointed to the vines covered with plant ash on the ground in astonishment and said, "Can this thing be eaten?"
The old man said: "If you can eat it, we ordinary people can eat anything."
Su Jin heard the anger in his words. He bent down and reached for one, looked at it for a long time, broke off a small piece, wiped it clean and put it in his mouth. A bitter and numb taste filled his mouth. Su Jin quickly vomited.
When I came out, I spat several times and got goosebumps all over my body.
The old man smiled and said, "Master, how do you feel?"
Wu Hengxin was already the leader of the yamen team, and he was followed by several yamen servants. Those yamen servants were all locals. Wu Hengxin asked them quietly: "What is this?"
A government official said quickly: "This is Malanthus vine. It is everywhere in the mountains and fields. The people used it for food during the famine years. It is numb and astringent. If eaten, it will get stuck in the intestines and make it difficult to poop.
It couldn't be pulled out. The common people found a way to mix plant ash and rub it together, and then washed it after exposing it to the sun. The numbing smell could be slightly removed, but it was still difficult to eat."
Su Jin heard this and asked: "Then why eat him?"
The old man said: "I also want to eat and drink every day, but I can't even have a few decent meals a month. If I don't eat this, will I starve to death?"
Su Jinqi said: "Doesn't the imperial court distribute food every month? Why can't you even have food? Even if the food is not enough, it's not like you can't even have a meal of porridge."
The old man sneered and said: "Is this official joking? How can ordinary people be as lucky as you say? Drinking porridge? Drinking northwest wind is almost the same. You officials like to pretend, even if you know the reason, you still say this
If so, gentlemen, please excuse me, I still have to make these delicacies, otherwise I will be hungry again at noon."
Chao Chao shouted: "This is the new prefect, Mr. Su Jinsu. He just arrived here to take up his post the day before yesterday. Please don't be rude."
The old man was stunned for a moment, with a look of hope on his face. He quickly returned to his original state, waving his hands and saying, "Even the new prefect cannot disturb others. The old man has not broken any laws. He is just dizzy from hunger. If he dies of hunger,
It's not good to be in front of adults. The poor man was right when he said that the malan vine can't poop after eating it, but there is one more thing he didn't say, that is, it eats a lot of smelly farts. If the old man is not careful,
It would be rude to fart and injure the prefect."
Su Jin listened to the mystery behind the old man's words, and thought that there must be a problem with the distribution of food. The military rations allocated by the Third Division every ten days included the amount of relief for the people. Why did these people eat these things that could kill people?
There must be something fishy about living on vines. At this time, not to mention the thorn in the old man's words, even if he whipped Su Jin, Su Jin would not leave.