After leaving the Withered Leaf Temple, the journey became faster, and it took less than a day to reach Chen County, and in the evening of the next day, you could finally see the city wall of Xiang County.

Speaking of Chen Jun, I can't help but talk about the famous Xie family. The highest prestige in this place is the Xie family, which is as famous as the Langya Wang family.

It's a pity that only half of the territory of Chen County conquered by the Great Wei Dynasty. But even so, it is also the county where the Han people of Wei lived the most.

The city walls of Xiangcheng are extremely strong, probably because it was Liu Song in the south not long ago, so the Great Wei has not dared to relax the control of Xiang County, not only all the captains who train the troops are all retired generals in the army, but there are also many veterans in the six towns in the north who will be transferred here, and the county soldiers here are by no means the kind of good and bad situation in other state capitals.

It is for this reason that Chen Jie moved his family here to become an official. He is the overseer of Chenjun, that is, a figure like the head of the sect, and it stands to reason that he should be very popular, but he doesn't seem to have any friends here.

The walls of the city are faintly red in the light of the setting sun, and they look like they are stained with blood. This thought made Hermulan somewhat uneasy, so she quickly looked away from the city walls, dismounted, and headed for the city with the others

"What are you doing in town? Friends? On an errand?"

Because He Mulan was dressed in the clothes of a Xianbei person, and he was accompanied by many "retinues" and "concubines", the city gate officials did not dare to stop her, but just stood under their horses to inquire.

In half an hour, the city gate was about to close, and they rushed to the gate of Xiang City at a galloping speed, and everyone looked tired and miserable, especially Tuoba Huang, who had always worn his hair, and when he rode his horse in the cold winter wind, his hairstyle was no different from that of a madman.

"…… Visiting friends." He Mulan thought for a moment and felt that this was the only reason that was closest to his purpose.

"Eight people, visiting friends in the city." He stretched out his hand.

"What is this?" He Mulan looked at Di Yefei for help.

He ran all the way from Dunhuang to Pingcheng, and he must have known what he wanted.

Di Yefei didn't speak, took out a bronze medal from his arms and shook it.

As long as the people in the army know what it is, although the city gate official is a small official, he is also subordinate to the army, so when he saw the bronze medal, he was taken aback and hurriedly made way for them.

"What the hell does he want? Proof of identity?" Tuoba Huang frowned and asked Di Yefei.

"He's asking for something." Di Yefei snorted disdainfully, "The geese have plucked their feathers, they just want some benefits."

Tuoba Akira was furious when he heard this.

"How dare a little city gate official collect city fees for the imperial court!"

There is no tax on "entrance fees" in the Great Wei. In the early years of the Great Wei Dynasty, the trade routes were blocked, the people's livelihood withered, and the wars were fought year after year, and all the emperors were in favor of merchants and craftsmen wandering around to drive commerce and handicrafts, and did not charge fees for entering the city.

"Everyone has no money, and if you don't rely on this scraping some benefits, I'm afraid you'll starve to death." Ah Luhuan didn't think there was anything wrong with the city gate official, but instead said something for him.

Hearing Ah Luhuan's interjection, Tuoba Huang snorted lightly, but didn't say anything more.

He Mulan didn't know what they were talking about at first, but then he flipped through his memories and couldn't help but be shocked!

No wonder Mulan doesn't want to be an official!

Oh, my God! The officials in the early years of the Northern Wei Dynasty did not have a fortune!

Maybe it's because the Xianbei people are from a tribe, and all the officials and soldiers used to be tribal elders and tribal soldiers.

Although each official will give land according to his grade, and will also give rewards as "welfare" during the New Year's Festival, there is no other income from Situ Sikong to Jiupin Sesame Official.

If the official child is large, after the land is large, the tenant will cultivate it or cultivate it himself, and the output of the field can be sold and exchanged for other things; But the officials are small, and they don't have much time to farm except for their own work. If you rent it to someone else, you won't be able to get much if the land is small.

In this case, it's not surprising that you're fishing for oil and water from top to bottom.

The defects in the official system, such as the rule of officials, the unclear system, and the overlapping responsibilities caused by the three official positions, made the imperial court system of the Great Wei very bloated, and the corruption was also very strict.

The army is relatively good, and will give food and land according to military merit and grade, and if you get a qiē thing in the war, from a small needle and thread to a woman, it belongs to the trophies of the victors, and it is much more nourished than the officials in the rear.

This also led some Hanmen and Xiaoshi clans to try their best to march into the army, and did not want to go to the local government to be officials. Most of the magistrates in the Great Wei Dynasty are the children of families with production in their families, and most of these people are the children of Han people's high families.

He Mulan exclaimed a few words in his heart, the Han people were awesome, such a messy official system could govern such a big country, and he admired Tuoba Huang and Tuoba Tao even more.

Thinking about it again, Tuoba Tao has always fed the war with war, because the country has not been dragged down for so many years, and now that several surrounding countries have been destroyed, what else can he rely on to make war money?

But for a moment, she put all these doubts behind her.

She is not Shang Shulang, nor is she an official of the DPRK and China, she is worried about this!

"General Hua, should we go to Chen Duwei's house now, or go directly to the yamen to take a look at Chen Duwei's situation?" Ah Luhuan is now the head of the egret, so if there is evil, he is now asking.

"…… I want to go to the prison to see Chen Jie first." Hermulan looked at it. [,！ Eyed Tuoba Huang and Shan Zhuo, "You are still the same as yesterday, you took the sign of the Egret official to find a yamen to live in, and when I ask Chen Jie what happened, I will come back and think about it in the long run."

"It's so late, why don't you go to prison tomorrow, let's go live together first?" Di Yefei looked at the sky, it was getting dark fast in winter, the sky was still red just now, and now it was so dark that it turned purple.

"The Xianbei Taishou here in Chen County is my former comrade in the feather forest, and Xiang County also has my old subordinates, the news will arrive tomorrow, you might as well rest assured and wait for the news."

When Di Yefei insisted on his own opinions, He Mullan was always a little accommodating. This is probably the consciousness left by the owner of the original body.

Therefore, Ah Luhuan once again showed the power of the "emperor's eyes and ears" to He Mulan and others, and with only a few bronze medals of the egret official, he successfully lived in the county Cheng's house.

This county not only treated them with respect, but also immediately made it clear what had happened when they asked about Chen Jie, the governor of this place.

"This lieutenant has a good reputation, and he doesn't have much to do with other military attachés. There was only one point that the lieutenant had to take a leave of absence every few months, saying that he was going to visit his old comrades. Thorn Shi admired his martial prowess and always responded to his fakes."

"It wasn't a big deal. A military attache is not like a civilian official, and if there is no war, it is okay to go out for a while once in a while. The blame is that every time he leaves, the grain distributed to the county soldiers in the storehouse here will be less, and when he comes back, the grain in the storehouse will be full again."

"Because the amount lent out is not large, and Chen Jie doesn't bring much grain every time he goes out, and when he comes back, he will even bring a little more, so the treasury in the treasury will turn a blind eye. But last month, Chen Duwei opened the warehouse without authorization to take five truckloads of grain, and once he went for a month, he said that he would make up for it when he came back, but after he came back, not only did he not make up for it, but he also did not tell Ku Cao where the grain went, and Ku Cao couldn't hide it when he saw it, so he had to report it......

As soon as the matter came out, Chen Duwei was imprisoned, and Na Kucao was also whipped fifty times and sent to the north to repair the city wall. Because he didn't know the whereabouts of the grain, Chen Duwei was locked up in prison and interrogated day and night."

The county can't manage the affairs of the county, and the lieutenants who train the soldiers are directly under the control of the Xianbei Taishou, and the Tai Code, who is in charge of the affairs of the prison, asks about the names of the sentences. But because Xiang County is the county governed by Chen County, this county magistrate also knows a lot □□.

He Mulan had a bad premonition in his heart after listening to the ins and outs of what the county magistrate said here.

But everyone who is in prison and interrogated must have been tortured to the end, tortured all over the place, and the good people have been tortured into bad people.

Even if Chen Jie is a military general who has made a lot of achievements, five carts of grain is not a small amount, and there is no reason for him to be treated with special treatment here.

Thinking about it this way, Chen Jie is still in prison without a verdict, it must be because of his clenched teeth.

Di Yefei didn't expect things to be so strict, so he comforted He Mulan and persuaded him to relax.

After a while, Di Yefei's subordinates who stayed in Xianbei Taishou also received a message and rushed to the county office, and the results they got were no different from what the county Cheng said.

"Lord Huyan has already sent someone to the prison to inform him, if General Hua wants to visit Captain Chen, he can go over at any time. The county is also having a headache about this case, and Captain Chen has always refused to admit that he smuggled military rations, nor did he say where those military rations were, so the case could not be closed. When he heard that the former commander of Chen Duwei had arrived, he hurriedly asked us to tell you, hoping that you could persuade Chen Duwei to tell the truth."

The pro-soldier also sighed.

"I heard that Lord Chen is also a good man, and he still refuses to let go after the criminal officer broke his ribs with a knife ring. If it weren't for the fact that he had an official position, once he was tortured too much, the official would have to sit back, and I am afraid that he would suffer even more."

When He Mullan and the others heard the paragraph "knock out the ribs", everyone frowned and said nothing.

This is the old type of Xianbei, which deals exclusively with the servants of the seller. This criminal officer's torture of his body fell second, Chen Jie was a brave general who had participated in the Battle of Rouran in the Northern Expedition and the Battle of Xiliang, and using this kind of punishment was also a humiliation to him.

He Mulan didn't sleep well at all, and went to the "Inner Official Prison" alone the next morning to imprison the officials.

"I heard that you are the superior of Captain Chen?"

Because of the orders of Xianbei Taishou, the cell leader led He Mullan to the lower level with a torch.

"Yes." He Mullan replied a little coldly.

Walking in such a place, of course, will not be very interesting.

Even though Hermulan was visiting the "Ancient Cell" for the first time, he didn't want to come in a second time.

Like most prisons, this one is built underground, with narrow passages and many crooked places, and the air is filled with a fishy smell. Even in broad daylight, it was pitch black, and the flames lit the gloomy masonry of his prison walls red, a color that looked disgusting.

They descended to the bottom, and the jailers along the way looked grim and terrible, and looked at them with distrust. But because they were with the cell boss, no one stopped them.

"Many people think that he was wronged, and that every qiē was a ruse by Kucao's envoys. But in any case, the rations must be recovered, otherwise many people will be implicated."

The cell boss is very honest.

After walking for about a quarter of an hour, he led Hermulan to the outside of a sturdy-looking house, and shouted into the bars:

"Hey, Chen Jie, someone has come to see you!"

Then something seemed to move in the gloomy prison, and after a while, Chen Jie, wrapped in a blanket, stretched his face out. He only showed half of his face, and his body was still. [,！ Lying down. The cell boss knocked on the bars and shouted, "Get up, your old master is here!"

"What old master?"

Some hoarse voices came out, and then the whole face came out of the blanket.

"It's me."

He Mullan walked to the bars and looked inside.

The moment the two made eye contact, the familiar dizziness and headache hit Hemulan.

……

Is it a memory of the past again?