In February, on the ancient road from Jinyang to Pingyao, a team came in a hurry.

At this time, the winter in the north has not completely passed, the north wind is still raging in the sky, the flags in the blowing team are violent, and people are also shrinking their hands and feet, trying to warm themselves up.

The team was very bloated, with a long string of pack carts, pack horses, and a large herd of cattle and sheep behind it, and around the team, a group of soldiers guarded the team, shouting and neighing, and the sound was noisy.

Obviously, this is a team that transports grain.

Spring is coming, the ice and snow are gradually melting, although the weather is still very cold, it is much warmer than the deep winter, and the grain team from the north is also more and more day by day.

On the way from the three counties of Daizhou to Jiangxian County, I don't know how many such teams there are.

The south is still fighting, but the north has almost completely settled, and these grain teams have brought a lot of benefits to the counties and towns along the road.

The brothels of Qinglou are the most direct beneficiaries, and the most basic livelihoods such as restaurants, tea shops, and grain shops have gradually appeared, rejuvenating these war-torn places.

Not many people care about how real and false this prosperity is, and ordinary people only know that a stable life is approaching them.

Pingyao County undoubtedly benefited a lot from the teams that transported grain and grass to and fro, and the desolate scene soon became a thing of the past.

Pingyao County can now be said to be the county with the largest number of soldiers in Bingzhou, and tens of thousands of Tang soldiers have settled here, most of them are Jin people.

Some were homeless people on Luliang Mountain, some of them hurriedly returned to their hometowns when they heard that the war was over, and some were caught by officers and soldiers and sent to Pingyao County.

Others are from Jinyang, their enthusiasm for the land and mountains and forests is higher than that of other people, once they come, they occupy a lot of fertile land and mountains and forests, and by the way, they also let the poor county town treasury have some savings, and at the same time slightly alleviate the food pressure in Pingyao County.

Last year, after the arrival of Zhang Yunzhi, the governor of Xihe County, he issued a number of decrees, re-recording household registration, distributing acres of land, and strictly ordering counties to plough the land immediately after distributing acres of land so that they could be cultivated in the coming year.

At the same time, it is also necessary to gather the people to build villages, houses, repair cities, ditches, etc., so it can be said that the entire Xihe County was busy in the second half of last year.

If you want to say that from the end of the great cause to the present, where is the most hit in Jindi, it must be Daizhou, as a frontier, under the internal and external difficulties, in the end, Daizhou from the peak of more than one million people only left more than one-third, and then the people of Youzhou moved in, slightly alleviated.

But for a long time, Mayi, Yanmen and other places will not change the social structure of many boys and girls, and the long period of time mentioned here is calculated in ten years.

In addition to the three counties of Daiju, Xihe County was most affected by taxes, labor, and war, and it was not injured by foreign enemies, but by civil war.

Not to mention the various harsh taxes and endless labor during the Great Cause years, the war between Li Po and Li Tang and the Xihe County in the late Sui Dynasty were almost empty, and they were not much better than the three counties of Daizhou.

Perhaps the only thing that is much stronger than Daizhou is that he has a lot of fertile arable land, there is no shortage of water, and the mountain and forest resources are more abundant, so more displaced people can survive, and if he recovers, it will be much faster than Daizhou.

Taking Pingyao County as an example, the population has increased a lot in just over half a year.

The displaced people dragged their families to come here and began to work hard, and the captured Tang soldiers gradually settled down, and they were busy building new homes here, and at the end of the autumn of last year, many people sent letters to their wives and children at home, asking them to come to Pingyao to live in peace.

By February of this year, Pingyao County had basically formed a population structure dominated by government soldiers and families, supplemented by other people.

Zhang Yunzhi, the county guard, finally breathed a sigh of relief, and began to carefully build his county guard mansion according to the number of roads in the two states.

To say that the attraction of Xihe County is still relatively large, it is not difficult to improve the composition of officials at all levels, restore the official system and the constraints of the law.

Zhang Yunzhi still has a lot to do in the next year, first of all, spring ploughing, and then he has to spend great efforts to continue to suppress bandits.

Zhang Yunzhi is very young, and there are not many bright spots in his talents.

But in the position of the Taishou of Xihe County, he behaved very competently, obviously, he benefited a lot from his political experience in Lou Fu's office, and he was very clear about the intentions of the governor's office.

Therefore, almost all his energy is focused on restoring people's livelihood, and it is easy to get good political results when he paints on a blank piece of paper.

So, at the beginning of the year, he was appreciated by the governor's office, and what made Zhang Yunzhi ecstatic was that he was able to vaguely conclude that when the king was called, he, the Taishou of Xihe County, would probably have a knighthood.

This will make him more prominent among the young children of the Zhang family in Jinyang, and the rich reward made Zhang Yunzhi write a long letter to the governor's mansion to return to the past, in addition to expressing his loyalty and gratitude, he also added some of his plans for Xihe County, and the excitement can be said to be on the page.

………………………………

Greeting this grain transport team was the new Pingyao county commander Liu Chaozong, who had not been in office for a few days, and the wilting was far from recovering the demeanor of the children of the Liu family in Xiangyang.

The weather in the north made him very uncomfortable, it had been spring for a long time, and it was still so cold, which made him wonder if he could see the mountains and rivers of his hometown if he stayed here for a few more years.

With a group of county officials, he looked at the old and long team that was slowly coming in the distance, and at this time he was muttering weakly to the main bookkeeper, "The houses in the county town should also be repaired, according to the ...... Conventionally, do you calculate how many people you can recruit out? ”

When the chief bookkeeper heard this, he wrapped the official robe on his body tightly, and tried his best to pretend to be "innocent" and "county honor...... According to the usual practice, Xihe County has to be exempted from money and grain for three years, and it has only been less than a year, how can the people be allowed to serve? ”

Liu Chaozong was obviously stunned, but he can be regarded as the most qualified county magistrate under the rule of Xihe County, don't look at the fact that he has only been in office for a few days, but he also knows a lot of things, and then asked, "That...... How did I hear that I was conscripted a lot of labor when I went to the county guard's office? ”

The chief bookkeeper replied with a wry smile: "That's all voluntary by the people, and those government soldiers have contributed the most, and there are not many government soldiers in the county." ”

Liu Chaozong understood this kind of loophole as soon as he heard it, "Then can we also persuade the people and let them voluntarily do some work?" ”

The master bookkeeper glanced at the new Shangguan'er, and felt that the other party's head was dangling around his neck, maybe he would fall off in a few days, so would he be able to compete for the position of the county commander?

The master bookkeeper was stunned, but he still answered honestly, "This matter has to be ordered by the Taishou Mansion, if the county lord wants to act without permission, I'm afraid it's not appropriate." ”

Liu Chaozong turned his head and glanced at the master book a few times, his gaze was not sharp, and he didn't have the ability to see through people's hearts, but in the end, he was a guy who had eaten human flesh, and it was very uncomfortable to look at the master book.

Liu Chaozong was silent for a long time, thinking that this master book was not a treacherous person, and what he said didn't seem like he was lying to him, of course, he had also heard some about the origin of the master book.

This early forties Zhao Zhushu is a native of Jinyang, there is no family background to speak of, when he went south to Jinyang on behalf of the army, he followed Li Yuanji to Jiangjun, and when Li Shentong was defeated in a battle, Zhao Zhushu soon returned to Pingyao to take up his post, and the official position did not move at all, but he also escaped a war.

A very smart person, if it was a few years ago, Liu Chaozong would be very happy that his main book was such a person, but now, he is a little unable to lift his spirits.

All his energy seems to have been spent on the escape after the assassination of Zhu Canghe, and now that he has arrived in Pingyao, the dreamy feeling of being in another world has been accompanying him.

Therefore, he quickly lost interest in guessing how many truths were true or false in the main book, whether he really wanted to advise him, or just wanted to prevent him from acting, and gave him, the new official, a dismount.

Since he can't be conscripted, then forget it, there were many dilapidated people in Pingyao County, and he wanted to repair it by the way.

Seeing the team in front of him getting closer and closer, Liu Chaozong said again: "County Lieutenant Wu has taken people out to suppress bandits again?" ”

"Yes, I heard that there is another group of bandits in Xishan, and there are not many of them, so I want to come to Wu County Lieutenant to take people out for a walk around to see if I can make some contributions."

"Well, how many of these people are among these people who transport grain and grass?"

The main book was a little blinded by him, so he could only follow his words and said: "The county respecter doesn't know, there are no people here, the coachman and the like, all of them are filled by soldiers, and the county honorific party has not long been here, and the lower officials are still ...... Let's tell the truth...... I heard that Daizhou in the north has not collected taxes and has been subject to labor for three years, and this year is the fourth year...... You should be able to see it better, you say? ”

Well, from the time of the Great Cause, large-scale conscription and forced labor had gradually become the norm, and all the officials who had served in the late Sui Dynasty regarded it as a normal thing.

Although this was one of the most important reasons for the death of the Sui Dynasty, the officials did not actually learn too many lessons, or rather, they did not have time to gain any experience and lessons from them.

Like Liu Chaozong, and after hearing this, he was a little surprised, and he was more interested, he really wanted to go to Daizhou to see what Daizhou was like without levying labor, and the county government should be as dilapidated as Pingyao, right?

It's just that the people who transport grain and grass are all soldiers? Things seem to be a little difficult to do, but of course, there are some conveniences......