Zhao Kuo finally understood why most of the nobles were willing to shelter their doormen and friends.

He looked at this frightened little official, and finally remembered him, he once sat in Dong Chengzi's carriage, served as the right of the car, and took the lead in the charge. I still remember that when Dong Chengzi came to visit him, this little official also gave him a gift and followed Dong Chengzi to visit him. Zhao Kuo was stunned, he looked at the little official kneeling on the ground in a complicated way, and asked through gritted teeth, "Why are you doing this?" ”

"If you don't have money, why don't you tell me? Am I stingy in rewarding meritorious soldiers? Why did the warriors who protected the people of Bairen become evil spirits who harm the people? ”

Rong slowly raised his head, looked at Zhao Kuo in front of him, looked away like an electric shock, pursed the corners of his mouth, but still couldn't speak.

"You committed a crime that can be killed, I didn't kill you, not because you fought with me, not because you were a guest of Dong Chengzi, but because you confessed your crime and did not resist. I will remove you from your post and send you to Handan, so that Dong Chengzi, who is in charge of criminal law, will judge you. Zhao Kuo said, looked at one of his doormen, and said, "Send him to Handan." ”

The doorman stepped forward and helped Rong up, Rong just lowered his head and didn't say a word, perhaps, he had no face to face Zhao Kuo, Rong was taken away like this, the surrounding people widened their eyes, Zhao Kuo said that he wanted to make decisions for them, they thought that Ma Fujun was going to reprimand these officials, but they didn't expect that Ma Fujun directly dismissed him, and even wanted to kill him! This is a miracle that the people have not seen for many years.

When Zhao Kuo looked at these people again, a smile appeared on his face again, he summoned the people to his side, and then he was about to sit down, the doormen hurriedly wanted to send him a seat, Zhao Kuo did not accept, he ignored the mud, directly sat on the edge of the cultivated land, and let everyone sit down one after another, the doormen sat down one after another, the people trembled, but did not dare to sit, Ma Fujun persuaded a few more words, and they sat down next to Zhao Kuo one by one.

"Please don't worry about the second and third sons, I know that there are many things that have delayed the farming, and I will advise the king to reduce the taxes in various places... I have heard that by planting mulberry trees next to five acres of residential fields, people who are fifty years old can wear silk. Breeding and breeding of chickens, ducks, pigs and dogs, don't miss the season, people who are 70 years old can often eat meat, a family planted a hundred acres of fields, do not miss the time to get farming, a few families will not make a famine. ”

"I will give an order, no one is allowed to delay the farming time, please two or three sons to plant mulberry trees, I will send poultry cubs, please don't miss the season when you are in captivity, work hard, you don't have to worry about next year's famine... If an official bullies the second and third sons and delays the farming, please ask the second and third sons to send someone to Mafu, and I will come in person to help the second and third sons. ”

Han Fei, who was standing not far away, looked at Ma Fujun, who was sitting among the people and gently admonishing them, and his heart was instantly moved, and his face was full of smiles.

"May I ask the sage here?"

Hearing Ma Fujun's question, the people communicated, and after a while, they said: "There is a young man in the countryside called Divination, he is a sage who is filial to his parents and cares for his neighbors. Zhao Kuo nodded, and asked again: "Then where is he?" A shy young man, probably a little shy from the praise of the villagers, stood up not far away, and bowed to Mafujun.

Zhao Kuo nodded and said: "Before I return to Handan, I will ask you to come to serve as the head of the township, lead the people to farm, punish the lazy, reward the meritorious, and the wealth accumulated by Rong belongs to the people, please return the grain and livestock in his courtyard to the people now, I will leave these things to you." Bu nodded earnestly and bowed to Zhao Kuo again.

Then, Bu left, Zhao Kuo sat here and continued to talk with the people, asking them about the difficulties they had encountered, as well as the problems of farming, and the old men, stroking their beards, tremblingly told Zhao Kuo: "There is a lot of wasteland here, but there are not enough people to farm. The problems encountered by the people today are different from those in the future, when the people will have no land to cultivate, but the people of today have no way to support their families through the land because of the underdeveloped farming technology.

Zhao Kuo suddenly remembered something, and he said: "I heard that people are lost, livestock are lost, and after being put for a period of time, they can be used on cultivated land and can increase harvests." Hearing Zhao Kuo's words, the people were very surprised, looking at each other, but a few elders hurriedly said: "What Ma Fujun said, I have heard that the Qin people have used the loss to irrigate the farmland, and the harvest is very good. ”

"Then why don't you follow suit?" , Zhao Kuo was even more surprised, on the one hand, he was surprised by the appearance of the original fertilizer, and he was surprised that these people knew why they didn't use it? The elder shook his head and said helplessly: "There are people of high status who say: The grain grown in this way is dirty and unclean, and only the foul-smelling barbarians of the west will eat such food, and we are not allowed to follow suit." ”

It turned out that the nobles of the Zhao Kingdom began to pursue green and harmless food so early.

Zhao Kuo was silent for a moment, shook his head and said, "If you feel that it is not clean, they can not eat it and ignore these people." ”

Bu quickly counted Rong's family property, Rong's money seems to be used to make friends with the nobles, the family's livestock, the stored grain is not much, Bu is distributing it, Zhao Kuo is also watching from the side, he wants to see if this young man, whether he has the ability to serve as a small official, I have to say, this sage who was recommended by the local villagers is indeed still good, and when the distribution is carried out, it is fair and just.

Zhao Kuo nodded, and said that he would come back after inspecting various places, so he drove away, there were still many places he wanted to go, and he couldn't stay here.

The people stood on the side of the road, looking at the carriage of Ma Fujun in the distance, and bowed down.

Until the carriage was gone, they did not get up.

The county system of Zhao State has not really been completed, not only in the title, but also in the local officials, it can also be reflected, there is almost no difference between the county seat and the township, the only difference may be that the city wall of the county town is taller, and the city wall of the township is relatively shorter. It is a bit ridiculous to use the city wall to divide the county town and the township. And the distance between places is also very long.

Maybe Zhao Kuo's deterrent power is too great, Zhao Kuo rushed from Handan to Wu'an on the road, every time he arrived in a township, there were already small officials who learned the appearance of Lian Po, naked and carrying thorns on their backs to beg for Zhao Kuo's forgiveness, since Lian Po created this method of apology, this method has become a fashion in Zhao State, a style of apology, but, looking at these kneeling on the ground, but there is not much apology on their faces, Zhao Kuo only feels that their behavior is an insult to Lian Po.

Zhao Kuo still did not kill these people, he removed them from their positions, and asked the locals to elect people who could convince them to serve as local officials. Han Fei analyzed with him that the little officials here were all arranged by Wu Anling, and it must be that Wu Anling didn't want to be implicated, so he pushed these little officials out and wanted to cut off his responsibility. Han Fei continued: "When we arrive in Wu'an City, the county magistrate will escort the evil officials in the county that he personally disposed of to see you. ”

Facts once again proved Han Fei's speculation.

When Zhao Kuo came to Wu'an City, sure enough, Wu'an Ling went out of the city to greet him, and on both sides of the road, there were some criminals kneeling on the ground trembling. Zhao Kuo found that Han Fei really had amazing intuition in these aspects. The county order is called Zhao Xu, like Zhao Kuo, he is also a son of the public office, he is different from those low-level officials, he is an official appointed by the king of Zhao, Zhao Kuo now has a royal order, he can kill him, but he can't find someone to replace his position.

Because of the appointment of doctors above the county level, this is the royal power of the Zhao State.

Since knowing the news that Zhao Kuo set off with the royal order, Zhao Xu was very afraid, he was just a small nobleman, with his eloquence, he made friends with a lot of ministers in the court, through their recommendation, he was appreciated by King Zhao, and he was very proficient in observing words and feelings, after he served as the county order, he helped the nobles in the country, and appointed their guests as officials, and the township officials were Rong, which was the product of his knots Dong Chengzi.

In order to better make friends with these nobles, he didn't pay attention to what these little officials did on weekdays. Until he heard that Ma Fujun wanted to punish the evil officials from all over the place, with the order of the king, left Handan City, at that moment, Zhao Xu's hands and feet were cold, and he almost fell headlong, when Li Mu was guarding Wu'an, he once asked Li Mu about Ma Fujun, Li Mu said: Ma Fujun is benevolent, loves the people, is upright, and will not let go of any wicked person.

Later, he saw the tragic situation of the hundreds of thousands of troops fighting at the head of Wu'an, and witnessed Zhao Kuo repelling the invincible Qin State Baiqi.

He was very scared, he knew that those he connived at, if Zhao Kuo found out, he would definitely kill himself, and if he was killed by such a gentleman, then he was destined to become a villain who was spurned by future generations. In addition to panic, he heard that Rong was arrested, Zhao Xu immediately ordered to investigate the evil officials in the county who endangered the people, and quickly arrested all of them, even if the nobles in the country embarrassed themselves in the future, they could not die in the hands of Ma Fujun like this.

It's okay to die in the hands of others, but you can't die in the hands of Ma Fujun.

When Zhao Kuo's carriage stopped, and the horse service flag was fluttering, Zhao Xu saw a chariot, the blood-stained horse service flag on the chariot, and Ma Fujun who rushed towards him with a sword, Zhao Xu shuddered, and opened his eyes again, but Ma Fujun was standing in front of him with a smile. Zhao Xu hurriedly leaned over and saluted, Zhao Kuo helped him up, and said with a smile: "I know you, you are Zhao Xu, and you almost died with Li Mu at the beginning." ”

For some reason, a warm current suddenly flowed in Zhao Xu's heart, he nodded, and said with a smile: "I am from the same clan as you, and I am your junior." Looking at the "junior" in front of him who was at least twenty years older than himself, Zhao Kuo was a little speechless, Zhao Xu's background was not high, and he did not have the reserve of nobles, he squeezed out a smile and began to flatter Ma Fujun's benevolence and courage, Zhao Kuo just smiled and rushed towards the city.

Zhao Xu pointed to the people on the road and said, "They are all evil officials in Wu'an City, and I have already listed their crimes, and I will hand them over to you to watch later." Zhao Kuo nodded.

Zhao Xu wanted to feast Zhao Kuo, but Zhao Kuo was not in a hurry to enter his courtyard, but in Wu'an City, chatted with the people, Zhao Xu followed behind him in fear, many of these people were soldiers who followed Zhao Kuo on the expedition, and when he saw Ma Fujun, he was extremely excited, knew everything, said everything, and said everything he knew.

No one blamed the county order, which made Zhao Xu breathe a sigh of relief.

Finally, Zhao Kuo sat in the county mansion, the county officials gathered around, and the doormen stood behind them. Zhao Kuo looked at Zhao Xu and said cordially: "You are a good official, and you have not done anything to endanger the people, and you have also dealt with those evil officials, which is very right...", Zhao Kuo looked at everyone and said: "The truth I want to say is the truth of governing the country." ”

"The strength of a country depends on how much grain can be produced in his cultivated land, how many soldiers he can muster, whether his people can work diligently, and whether they can kill the enemy bravely. The people are the foundation of the country, the rich and noble people think that the people are despicable, bullied at will, without the people's farming, the rich and noble people will definitely go hungry, and if there are no people to serve, no matter how rich and noble the people are, they will fall to the point of being killed by the enemy. ”

"So protecting the people, it's not for the sake of righteousness and morality, it's something you can do for your own sake. The people feel the kindness of the rich and noble, so they will take up the spear to fight for the country, reduce local servitude, increase the local household registration, urge the people to farm, and give them favors, which is the reason why the rich and noble can maintain their nobility. ”

"At the beginning, my father killed Pingyuanjun's disciple, and Pingyuanjun wanted to deal with his crimes, he said: Zhao Guo was defeated because of these people, you are the clan of Zhao, if Zhao Guo is destroyed, can you continue to be rich today? What I want to talk about is this matter, sheltering the officials who endanger the people, or bullying the people themselves, delaying the agricultural time, this is the thing that will bring the Zhao State to its destruction, the Zhao State will perish, won't the officials of the Zhao State become the slaves of the enemy? ”

"I have heard that there is a bird called a doom, and drinking wine soaked in its feathers can poison people, but some people feel that they are thirsty, and they want to drink such wine and poison themselves to death. I've heard that there is a kind of bird called... The golden goose lays a golden egg every day, but the greedy people kill the golden goose to take the eggs from its belly in order to get the golden egg earlier. Isn't that the same as what I'm saying? ”

"The principle of governing the country is like this, if the local officials can fulfill their duties and take care of the people of Zhao State, then Zhao State will definitely become strong, which is only good for officials and no harm." , Zhao Kuo said seriously, but Han Fei behind him was quickly recording his words and deeds, Han Fei has always liked to write some interesting stories from all over the world, and this time Zhao Kuo's words made him think of two stories that contained truth that could be recorded by himself.

After Zhao Kuo finished saying this, he suddenly took off the jade pendant on his waist and handed it to Zhao Xu, Zhao Kuo said with a smile: "This is a reward from the king, because I led the soldiers to repel the enemy, and now I want to reward you, because I only protected Wu'an City once, but you can protect it for a longer time." Zhao Xu's trembling hand took the jade pendant handed by Zhao Kuo, and looked at Zhao Kuo's sunny smile blankly, and suddenly, Zhao Xu knelt on the ground.

"Ma Fu-kun... I'm guilty... I have failed to fulfill my duty, and I have indulged their guests in order to make friends with them... I'm not the gentleman you think, I arrested those evil officials because I was afraid of being punished by you, I don't deserve your rewards and praises, it's all my fault...", Zhao Xu knelt in front of Zhao Kuo, whimpering, tears kept falling to the ground, and all the officials got up one after another, looking at this scene in surprise.

Han Fei worked hard to write the book, great, the third story is here.