After the turn of the year, it is the New Year again.

This year, Zhao Yu was nineteen years old.

In the early morning of the first day of the first lunar month, Zhao Yu woke up to the sound of firecrackers in the city, yawning while putting on his clothes under the service of his wife Jingnu.

Last night's New Year's Day, it was supposed to be the day of the whole family reunion, so Zhao Yu set up a family banquet in the house, and got drunk with Niu Heng, He Shun, Gong Jiao and others.

Why is it half-time, because halfway through the drink, Zhao Yu left Niu Heng and they went back to the bedroom to hug Jingnu, leaving Niu Heng and He Shun and a group of people to fight there.

He is a family man, unlike Niu Heng, He Shun, and Gong Jiao, who are still singles in their twenties and thirties.

"I think it's time to tell Brother Niu about a family matter, and He Shun and Gong Jiao ...... them."

While serving her husband and dressing, Jingnu said casually.

Hearing this, Zhao Yu rolled his eyes.

Didn't he remind him?

If He Shun and Gong Jiao are really busy, they need to follow Zhao Yu in and out all day long, Niu Heng is almost an idler, unless there are special circumstances, Niu Heng, the nominal head of the guard, generally acts on his own, either drinking in Zhao Yu's mansion until he gets drunk, or at the instigation of a group of black tigers, he takes a group of brothers in and out of the land of fireworks, and his life is not too comfortable.

Tell him about a marriage now? He promised to answer with a smile: It's still early, it's still early.

Sometimes Zhao Yu is very suspicious that Niu Heng's honest face is actually a disguise, but in fact, this person is very shrewd, just like Chu Jiao on the other side of the main village.

Of course, Zhao Yu will not veto Jingnu's suggestion, after all, Niu Heng's age is indeed old, as his brother, Zhao Yu has the responsibility to take care of this brother with a missing head, or to put it bluntly, find a woman to take care of this guy, lest this guy die of drinking before he is fifty years old.

Taking a picture of the bronze mirror, Zhao Yu said casually: "Then you look at the arrangement first, and I will sum it up with you when I go back, don't look for those daughters of the family, pampered, not with Brother Niu's personality, and there are still a bunch of rules at home, I don't want an old man to come to me in the future to complain and reprimand Brother Niu for punching his father-in-law after getting drunk......"

"How so." Jingnu couldn't help but laugh.

"I hope not. …… I'll go first. ”

Zhao Yu held his wife's face and kissed it.

Although she has been a husband and wife for several years, Jing Nu still blushed, handed a mask to Zhao Yu, and said softly: "Husband, go slowly." ”

Bidding farewell to his beloved wife, Zhao Yu walked out of the couple's bedroom wearing a mask.

As soon as he went out, he saw three maids, Bi'er, Qing'er, and Yao'er, in the corridor outside the bedroom.

Seeing Zhao Yu, the three girls seemed to be frightened, and one by one they held their breath and condensed, bowed their heads and called: "Master." ”

"Am I that scary?"

Zhao Yu nodded in response, and couldn't help but wonder a little in his heart.

To be honest, not to mention scolding, he didn't even speak loudly to these three little girls, every time he treated them politely, he didn't know why these three little girls were so afraid of him.

Now he faintly understands his father, the Marquis of Luyang.

To say something disrespectful to his mother Zhou, in terms of character, in fact, his father Luyang Township Marquis has a much better personality than his mother, but the strange thing is that the maids in the mansion like Jingnu were not afraid of Zhou, but they were afraid of Luyang Township.

Today, too......

Zhao Yu couldn't help but recall the fierce appearance of Jing Nu when she cut off Tong Yan's fingers with a sword in her hand in the small village of East Wing Mountain.

It is no exaggeration to say that even Niu Heng, He Shun, and Gong Jiao, a group of murderous old men, were frightened at that time, and they were silent and looked at each other.

However, the three ignorant little girls in front of them naively thought that their wife was a gentle and almost harmless woman, and they were all willing to get close to Jingnu.

"Young."

After taking a few deep glances at Bi'er's three girls, Zhao Yu chuckled in his heart and walked out of the main house.

When his figure disappeared at the end of the corridor, Bi'er's three daughters breathed a sigh of relief, and Bi'er patted her chest and whispered, "I'm scared to death......"

Qing'er and Yao'er also nodded one after another, especially the youngest Yao'er, whose face was even a little pale.

Just like the Luyang townsman back then, because Zhao Yu rarely broke off with these three little girls, the three girls inevitably felt awe of Zhao Yu.

A moment later, Zhao Yu came to the hall outside the dining room.

I saw He Shun, Gong Jiao and several black tigers sitting in the hall talking and laughing, but they couldn't see Niu Heng's figure, and they didn't need to ask to know that Niu Heng must be hungover and couldn't wake up, and he was still asleep at the moment.

"Captain."

Seeing Zhao Yu, He Shun and the others immediately got up and saluted Zhao Yu with a fist.

During this period, an old gentleman who was standing aside and was incompatible with He Shun also stepped forward and saluted Zhao Yu: "Master." ”

This old gentleman is the housekeeper of Zhao Yu's mansion, named Jia Ying, who was selected by Jingnu at the beginning.

The ability may not be outstanding, the key is to be able to read and write, just like the gentleman in the bookkeeper, compared to Cao Ju, the big housekeeper of Luyang Township, this is much inferior.

Of course, it doesn't matter, anyway, there is a quiet girl who takes care of the house up and down, and the people in the house only need to obey orders.

"Master, this is a gift list."

As he spoke, the old housekeeper named Jia Ying took out a stack of gift slips from his arms and respectfully handed them to Zhao Yu.

The world pays attention to the number of gifts, and on the first day of the first month of the New Year, this kind of festival naturally has to be exchanged with courtesy, and Zhao Yu, as the governor of Yingchuan County, is naturally indispensable for this kind of entertainment, whether it is the Li county guard above, or his subordinates of the governor's office, how much must be expressed, the congratulatory gift does not need to be valuable, the important thing is the heart.

Zhao Yu took the gift list and looked through it, and asked, "Nothing was missed, right?" ”

Jia Ying hurriedly said: "The old man has checked with Chief He many times, and the officials of the Governor's Office and the County Guard Mansion are among them, and they have not been missed. ”

"Okay."

Zhao Yu nodded, handed the stack of gift slips to He Shun, and said with a smile: "There is Mr. Lao." ”

"Don't dare, don't dare."

Jia Ying was flattered and thanked repeatedly.

After breakfast, Zhao Yu took He Shun, Gong Jiao and several Black Tigers out of the mansion, and took the lead to go to the county guard mansion to meet the county guard Li Min.

Compared with last year, Li Junshou's physical condition has improved a lot and he can already handle government affairs.

It's just that at present, the county guard does not have so many government affairs for this Li county guard to deal with, the military and public security are already controlled by Zhao Yu, and the internal affairs of each county have the county Cheng Chen Lang, to put it mildly, even if this Li county guard suddenly dies, Yingchuan County will still operate as usual, and there will be no problems.

Of course, having said that, Zhao Yu still hopes that this Li county guard will live for a hundred years, after all, this is a 'harmless' county guard, if he unfortunately dies violently, the imperial court will inevitably appoint a new county guard, and Zhao Yu may not be able to seize power like he is now.

"Your Excellency is really good today, congratulations."

Seeing Li Junshou, Zhao Yu immediately stepped forward and congratulated him.

From the side, He Shun stuffed a gift slip into the sleeve of a Li Min servant next to him.

Li Junshou laughed and responded to Zhao Yu, and caught a glimpse of He Shun's actions out of the corner of his eye, and he was very satisfied.

is still the same sentence, as a county guard, Li County Shou doesn't care about Zhao Yu's congratulatory gift at all, what he cares about is Zhao Yu's 'loyalty', especially after Zhao Yu was awarded the table word by Chen Taishi, he was afraid that this capable subordinate would be abducted by Chen Taishi.

As the saying goes, a general is incompetent, tired of the three armies, in fact, the same is true of the captain, look at the first two years ago Cao Suo, the captain of Yingchuan County, how miserable he was beaten by Xiang Xuan and Zhou Gong, until the current Zhou Hu took office, the rebels in his Yingchuan County could not turn the wind and waves, and in the next year, even Zhou Gong was caught and thrown to the prisoner camp outside the city as a farmer.

Considering that he Yingchuan County was the fastest to recover from the chaos of the rebels, all of this made Li Junshou feel bright.

Although he had a good personal relationship with Taishi Chen, this did not mean that Li Junshou was willing to give up his capable subordinate to the former.

No, taking advantage of Zhao Yu's coming to congratulate, Li Junshou knocked on the side again: "These days, can the Taishi have a letter?" ”

"No, I didn't."

Zhao Yu shook his head and said: "When the Taishi returned to Handan last year, he said that he had something important to face the saint, and it was estimated that he was busy with something. ”

"Hmm." Li Junshou nodded, and then said with a smile: "The Taishi is so upright, maybe he will recruit you to his account as a general in the future......"

Seeing that Li Junshou's eyes were looking at him intentionally, Zhao Yu was secretly happy.

He and Chen Lang teamed up to almost empty this Li County Shou, and this Li County Shou actually wanted to keep him by his side.

"Alas, it is true that I have shown too much integrity and righteousness...... Too much, too much.'"

Zhao Yu secretly laughed at himself.

He once felt that he was the kind of lawless guy, but because he was kind to the people and approachable, he was deeply appreciated by Taishi Chen.

In all fairness, Zhao Yu actually doesn't feel that he has any benevolence and righteousness, he treats refugees well, it's just his conscience, he doesn't want to see starvation everywhere, approachable, just because most of the people he meets are polite and even respectful to him, in this case, why should he put on a shelf?

Unexpectedly, these things were all regarded as advantages by Chen Taishi and Li Junshou, which really responded to that sentence, and they all relied on their peers to set off - compared with ordinary bureaucrats, Zhao Yu's style of acting can indeed be called an advantage.

While smiling secretly, Zhao Yu swore in response to Li Junshou: "These things, the Taishi has never mentioned these things to the lowly position, and the lowly position does not dare to have extravagant hopes, and what the current lowly position cares about is to manage the security of my Yingchuan County well, and never let the external rogues take advantage of it." ”

Hearing these words, Li Junshou was very satisfied.

Satisfied, Li Junshou was suddenly stunned and asked, "Liukou?" What rogues? ”

Zhao Yu explained with a smile: "Last winter, in the western part of Henan County, probably in Henan County and the area around Yique, a group of mobs appeared and looted the county warehouse, and some of them fled to Yique as bandits...... Rest assured, my lord, it's just a group of thieves, and I have already ordered Yangzhai County to guard the northwest and prevent that group of thieves from entering my Yingchuan. ”

"Hmm."

Li Junshou was relieved, nodded and advised: "You can send someone to contact Henan County, Henan Governor Li Meng is still in Nanyang, if Henan County is unable to suppress the thief, you might as well send someone to help, don't let the thief become bigger." ”

"Please rest assured." Zhao Yu responded with a fist.

He didn't tell the Li county guard in front of him, in fact, the riot in the western part of Henan County was quite big, not only civilians participated, but even a part of the Henan garrison was coerced to participate, the specific cause is not clear for the time being, Zhao Yu roughly guessed that it should be a serious shortage of food in the western part of Henan County, so that there was a riot around the autumn harvest.

Of course, Zhao Yu didn't want to deliberately make that group of mobs bigger, the reason why he didn't move was that this incident happened in the western part of Henan County, which was not under his jurisdiction, and second, the road was closed by ice and snow in winter, and the road was difficult to travel, and it was difficult for him to send the Yingchuan County Army across the county to assist.

Zhao Yu estimated that similar things have happened all over the country, but the news transmission is inconvenient and has not been known for the time being.

Immediately, Li Junshou chatted casually with Zhao Yu for a while, and Zhao Yu offered to leave.

Looking at the back of Zhao Yu leaving, Li Junshou's face showed a little hesitation, and he stroked his beard and muttered: "If this son is not half-disfigured, he is suitable to be Yan'er's husband......"

Originally, Li Junshou had already dispelled this idea, but he didn't expect that his subordinate would actually have a relationship with Taishi Chen and become the eldest son.

Li Min has no doubt that with this Zhou Hu's ability, he will definitely be able to become a general like the 'Five Tigers of Chenmen' and become the sixth tiger in the future.

The only thing that bothered Li Junshou was the 'burn wound' on Zhou Hu's face, as well as his wife's 'Zhao Zhou' who came out of nowhere.

After taking the gift slip handed by the servant and glancing at it, Li Junshou stepped back to the main house and summoned his wife Wang in the side hall.

A moment later, Wang came in a surge.

Li Junshou handed the gift list to the Wang family and said, "Fang Cai, Zhou Hu came to congratulate the old man on the New Year......

Wang chuckled and said, "That Zhou Duwei has a heart...... she seemed to think of something, and said with a strange expression: "Master, you can't think of that thing again, right?" That Zhou Duwei is already married, so he can't let Yan'er be a child, right? ”

"That's the ......," Li Junshou stroked his beard and hesitated, "But ...... Zhou Hu is now the righteous son of Taishi Chen......"

Maybe he didn't think it was appropriate, and the second half of the sentence became lighter and lighter.

Wang shook his head and persuaded again: "Besides, the concubine also heard that Zhou Duwei's wife is a very powerful woman...... The concubine thought that it was better to think about it in the long run. ”

Li Junshou stroked his beard and was silent.

He also wants to think in the long run, but looking at the entire Jin Kingdom, is there a young man who is more capable than that Zhou Hu?

That is a young man who even appreciates his talent and accepts him as a righteous son.

"I'll think again."

Li Junshou stroked his beard and said.

This alone shows the indecisiveness of this county keeper.

Of course, for Zhao Yu, the indecision of this boss is not a disadvantage, but an advantage.

Just when Li Junshou and his wife Wang were worried about their daughter's marriage, Zhao Yu, who didn't know anything about it, came to the mansion of Juncheng Chen Lang.

Generally speaking, the county is half a rank higher than the governor, but this does not apply to Yingchuan County.

In Yingchuan County, the county guard Chen Lang is the only one who looks forward to Zhao Yu, especially after Zhao Yu became the righteous son of Chen Taishi in a daze, Chen Lang became more and more obedient to Zhao Yu.

Therefore, when he saw Zhao Yu come to congratulate him in person, Chen Lang was flattered.

To tell the truth, he had learned the news of Zhao Yu's arrival at the county guard mansion a moment ago, and he was also looking forward to whether this Zhou Duwei would come to congratulate him after congratulating Li on the county guard, so he waited outside the party room early.

Unexpectedly, this Captain Zhou really came, even if he came by the way, it made Chen Lang's face shine.

Seeing Chen Lang respectfully welcoming himself into the room, compared to the more restrained Zhao Yu, who knew the reason, said with a wry smile: "People say that there are many courtesies, but they seem to be estranged, I have known Jun Cheng for two years, and I have always regarded Jun Cheng as a friend, why should Jun Cheng be so outside?" …… The two cooks in my house are still borrowed from your house. ”

Hearing this, Chen Lang was quite moved, and he said with a wry smile: "It's not that I'm alienating the lieutenant, it's just ...... It's just that the status of the lieutenant is not ...... than before."

Zhao Yu shook his head and smiled: "Even so, Zhou Hu is still Zhou Hu." ”

Chen Lang nodded approvingly, and then apologized: "What the Captain said is that he is being cheesy and underestimating the Captain's mind...... Is the Captain an ordinary man? ”

"Hahaha."

After some talk and laughter, Zhao Yu and Chen Lang became closer and closer.

After talking with Chen Lang for a while, Zhao Yu said goodbye and left.

Before leaving, he instructed He Shun to hand over a stack of gift slips to Chen Lang, and asked Chen Lang to pass it on to the officials of the county guard's mansion.

In fact, there are not many congratulatory gifts, the key is to buy people's hearts, in fact, Chen Lang also guessed Zhao Yu's intentions, but even he was impressed by Zhao Yu, how could he debunk it.

Around three o'clock, Zhao Yu returned to his governor's office.

Upon learning that this Lieutenant Zhou had come to the bureau, officials from the bureau came to his room one after another to congratulate him on the New Year.

Zhao Yu also instructed He Shun to hand over the gift list one by one,

As for the ordinary officials and officials in the Governor's Office, Zhao Yu also instructed Gong Jiao to stuff a few strings of copper coins into his sleeves.

Whether it is a congratulatory gift or a copper coin, there are not many, but the officials and officials who received the money all closed their mouths happily, after all, this was a congratulatory gift given to them by Zhou Duwei, and the weight was completely different.

It is no exaggeration to say that Zhao Yu has now bribed the officials from the Governor's Office and the county guard's mansion, and almost no one has spoken ill of him - if so, it is estimated that he will also be relegated to other places in a different way.

The lieutenant office went up and down, and the only one who didn't come to congratulate Zhao Yu was Xun Yi, who joined the army.

Since Zhao Yu became the righteous son of Taishi Chen, the officials of the Governor's Office and the County Guard Mansion have been competing with each other, but Xun Yi is still the same, and even, when treating Zhao Yu as respectfully, he is not as respectful as before.

Zhao Yu is not surprised, because he knows the temper of people like Xun Yi - most of the upright gentlemen like this are unsociable, others compete with each other, he just wants to be different, at best I heard that this is called Gengzhi, this is called integrity, at worst, it is difficult to hear, this is called sick.

In short, this kind of person is inherently unsuitable for being an official.

Zhao Yu appreciates Xun Yi, so naturally he doesn't compare.

In the next few days, the more straightforward Xun Yi became, the more polite he became to Xun Yi, and after a few times, Xun Yi was very embarrassed, and he was embarrassed to appear in front of Zhao Yu for several days.

To deal with this kind of gentleman, this trick is enough.

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, Zhao Yu led people to inspect the refugee camps in Xuchang and Yanling, and also brought some winter clothes, quilts and other things to keep out the cold, because Chu Yan, who was sitting in Yanling, reported to him that some refugees froze to death at the end of last year.

To be sure, even during the peaceful years, many poor civilians died of hunger and cold during the winter, not to mention the current group of refugees, which is just one of them.

When the news of this death reached the county guard's mansion, it didn't even go to waste, and it wasn't that the officials of the county guard's mansion wiped out humanity one by one, but this kind of thing really can't be eliminated - they have built houses for the refugees to spend the winter, sent the county guards to prepare enough firewood, and even provided some winter clothes and quilts, in this case, there are still people who freeze to death, and they can't help it.

You can't bring this group of refugees into the city and order the people in the city to give up some houses and things to protect them from the cold, right? If this were the case, it is estimated that the people of the city would have revolted first.

But Zhao Yu still went to visit those refugees, and distributed some cold things to the refugees who were really difficult, saying that he still had a conscience, or bought people's hearts, anyway, he was idle during this time.

What's more, as a lieutenant, doing these things is just a gesture.

In the final analysis, it may not be that Zhao Yu has done more, but that most of the bureaucrats have done less, which is probably why Chen Taishi values Zhao Yu.

In mid-February, Zhao Yu saw several notices at the Governor's Office.

The first said that a group of people in Langling County, Runan County, made a rebellion, looted the county treasury, and fled to the mountains, and the local government designated them as 'Langling thieves' and sent officers and soldiers to encircle and suppress them, but they never thought that they would lose many officers and soldiers.

The second said that in the western part of Runan County, near Wuyang County of Yingchuan County, a group of thieves occupied Woniu Mountain, looted Linxian County, and even fled to the territory of Yingchuan Wuyang.

Qin Yu, a soldier temporarily stationed in Wuyang, learned that 500 county soldiers were sent to encircle and suppress, killing more than 100 thieves, and the rest fled into Woniu Mountain.

Third, Biyang and Fuyang counties in Nanyang County rioted, killing and retreating the Nanyang army stationed in the city and seizing the county seat.

At this time, Wang Shangde was far away in Jingzhou, and his brother Wang Yan was in Wancheng, and when he learned of this, Wang Yan raised 3,000 Nanyang troops to Biyang and Fuyang counties, although he successfully recovered the lost county, but he missed the two groups of thieves.

These two groups of thieves fled to Woniu Mountain, colluded with the Langling thieves, and their power grew rapidly.

These three notices were not sent by the imperial court, but were sent to Yingchuan by Runan County and Nanyang County, the reason is nothing more than that these gangs of thieves threatened Yingchuan, and it is necessary for Runan County and Nanyang County to remind Yingchuan in advance to prepare for the enemy's rogues, so as not to be questioned by Yingchuan County in the future.

In other words, only related to Yingchuan County, there are three Langling thieves, Biyang thieves, and Fuyang thieves this year, and as for those that have nothing to do with Yingchuan County, God knows how many groups of thieves have appeared.

"The world will be in chaos......

Looking at these three reports, Zhao Yu secretly sighed.

Last year, he had a hunch that this year might be a year of thieves, but he didn't expect that as soon as spring began, there were three groups of thieves in Yingchuan County.

In contrast, these three groups of thieves gathered in Woniu Mountain, and Zhao Yu didn't care much.

"There must still be remnants of the Jingchu rebels hidden in Nanyang, I'm not surprised that there is a riot, but I didn't expect that there was also a riot in the western part of Runan County, so it seems that Jiangxia, Lujiang, Jiujiang, and even Pei County are probably also a mess."

Standing up, Zhao Yu slowly walked to the window, looking at the snow scene outside the window with his hands behind his back.

It is not difficult to imagine that this year's thieves will become more and more intense, and some people who want to take advantage of the chaos to do a big job, who want to avenge a few righteous teachers, are estimated to jump out of all kinds of people.

At best, Koto may be able to take a breath of relief.

At worst, this is obviously a symptom of chaos in the world.