Jiangzhou, that is, Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province in the later generations, because it is located in the water and land to rush, connecting Jiangnan Road and Huainan Road, coupled with the Linxunyang River and directly connecting the Yangtze River and Pengze and Poyang, has become the most prosperous and famous state city in the area of Jiangnan West Road in the Great Song Dynasty. There are also natural historical monuments such as Bailu Cave and Lushan Mountain in the territory, which attract tourists, scholars and businessmen to come one after another.

However, if you want to say that the name of Jiangzhou City can really remain in the ancient and modern times, it is not the sentence "Jiangzhou Sima Qingshan is wet" in the pipa line made by Bai Juyi, the poet king of the Tang Dynasty, when he was an official here. This sentence alone made many literati come to Jiangzhou to pay tribute to their ancestors and see the stunning appearance of the pipa girl here.

It's just that when Sun Tu's official ship finally docked, and looked at the slightly deserted near the wharf, with only seven or eight large and small boats floating on the water, he couldn't help but feel a little surprised: "As far as I know, Jiangzhou has always had developed commerce and trade because of its location on land and water, why is it so deserted on the wharf now?" ”

This question was naturally unanswerable to the few people who came from Tokyo with him, but because the voice was a little loud, it reached the ears of an old fisherman with gray hair on a small fishing boat next to him, and he replied with a smile: "A few guests came from afar, obviously I don't know the situation in my Jiangzhou area now, because there is a water bandit on the Xunyang River that is the most ferocious, not only robbing people of money but also killing people and sinking corpses, which makes many merchants dare not take the waterway to come to my Jiangzhou for more than half a year." ”

"In my Great Song Dynasty, there is such a thing under Lang Lang Qiankun?" Yang Zhi's brows furrowed quickly when he heard this: "Doesn't the local government want to suppress bandits and calm the people?" ”

"Official? However, he sent several soldiers and horses to suppress the bandits, but they fled back in embarrassment under the loss of soldiers. Because of this, the merchants did not dare to take the waterway anymore, and would rather detour dozens of miles of mountain roads than enter and exit Jiangzhou by land. Only an old man who has no money and only relies on fishing for a living dares to go to the river at this time. The old fisherman said that he had lightly put the penny in his hand, and was about to set off in the boat, and finally he sighed a little and said: "It is a very lucky thing that a few guests can come to my Jiangzhou by boat safely, and don't be in danger when you leave." After speaking, he didn't wait for a few people to respond, and he had already pushed the boat away.

Sun Tu and the others all looked at each other when they heard this story, no one thought that Jiangzhou City, which should be rich and lively, would encounter such a problem, so it seems that there will be a vacancy in the position of team training here, and it should be inseparable from the water bandits rampant on the river.

Even more panicked than them were the few official boatmen who sent them all the way from Tokyo, thinking that they and the others were lucky to come all the way from the Xunyang River, they were afraid for a while, and at the same time worried about how to go back next: "A few officials, the little ones ......."

"Just rest assured, the old fisherman doesn't recognize our identity, but that doesn't mean the bandits can't recognize us. When the boat was on the river before, the Sprinkle family had found that there were some small boats of unknown origin along the road that were not going around, and they just wanted to find out, but they all dispersed again, obviously recognizing us as people from the government, so they didn't dare to start. When you go back tomorrow, those bandits will not dare to be presumptuous. Ruda immediately spoke out of relief.

After his reminder, several people also remembered the strange appearance on the river before, and couldn't help but admire Ruda's caution, and the boatmen finally felt a little at ease, and no longer pestered Sun Tu and them to help them get out of danger.

When he said this, Tang Feng had already diligently helped Sun Tu and them take their respective horses and luggage off the boat, and the others were just a carry-on bag except for their mounts, but Sun Tu and Ya'er had brought several large boxes of things, which looked really not light.

Fortunately, although there are few boats near this pier, there are still waiting to make money, and when I saw a few people moving a lot of things down, a few men greeted me with a smile, and asked in an official dialect with a clear local accent: "Are a few guests going into the city?" We have a car that can take you into the city, and if you give us 100 wen, we can help you get everything to your accommodation and settle down. ”

As soon as he heard that the price was so cheap, Sun Tu immediately agreed. You must know that this 100 yuan can only ask one idler to carry some miscellaneous items in the city of Tokyo, but there are three people and two big cars here. And now Sun Tu has made a lot of money by consigning sportswear shampoo or something in Tokyo before, and now he has a net worth of thousands of yuan, although he is not very rich, but it is enough for several of them to live comfortably in Jiangzhou City for several years without worrying about food and drink.

Seeing Sun Tu nodding, several men were even more happy, and hurriedly helped them carry all their luggage into the car, and invited Ya'er, who could not ride a horse, to sit down on the car, and then drove the donkey in front of the car to lead the way and march towards Jiangzhou City, which was ten miles ahead.

Along the way, Sun Tu finally saw a lot of merchants and pedestrians coming and going, but most of them were accompanied by more than seven or eight people, which made him curious and asked those men: "Why, in addition to the bandits on the water in this Jiangzhou, is it not even peaceful on land?" ”

"Actually, it's okay on land, and there have been two or three cases of roadblocks and looting, but the merchants are scared, and they feel uneasy when they can't get together a dozen or twenty people on the road together. Hey, those water bandits are really hateful, this is forcing our brothers to a dead end, if the government can't suppress the bandits anymore, we will really not be able to buy and sell in a few months. One of the men said with a bitter face.

Sun Tu nodded lightly, and secretly made a decision in his heart, since he became a local team trainer, after establishing a firm foothold and training the soldiers and horses, the first task was to wipe out this water bandit that had been in trouble for a long time.

And once he opened the chatterbox, the man relaxed a little and asked casually, "How many guests came from nowhere?" But did you come to my Jiangzhou to do business? ”

"No, we are here to join our relatives, I have an elder who is an official in Jiangzhou, I don't know if my brother has heard of him, he is a local magistrate......" Sun Tu's heart moved, and he simply inquired about Yuan Wang's reputation and reputation in the local area from the side.

As soon as those men heard that he was actually Yuan Wang's junior, their faces immediately showed excitement: "It turned out to be Yuan Tuiguan's nephew, no wonder he was dignified and treated me so politely." ”

"Oh? It seems that my uncle is a good official in the eyes of everyone? ”

"Of course Yuan Tuiguan is a good official, he is really dedicated to making decisions for us and other small people, some of the lawless scoundrels in the city were ordered by Yuan Tuiguan to be arrested, which made my Jiangzhou City's discipline much better. Also, he never accepts bribes, as long as we and other small people have grievances, Yuan Tuiguan will definitely carefully try and return us a fair ......" As soon as Yuan Wang was mentioned, these people couldn't stop talking, and immediately talked endlessly about the many cases he had handled for the people since he took office seven years ago.

Finally, someone else mentioned: "It was this time that bandits were rampant on the Xunyang River, and it was Yuan Tuiguan who sent officers and soldiers to clean up the water several times." However, our officers and soldiers here are really not helpful, which is why this is the case. ”

Sun Tu quietly listened to them say a lot of things, and knew a little more about this Yuan Wang, this person has been an official in Jiangzhou for many years, and he has really done a lot of practical things for the people, so he has an excellent reputation, and even let the people only know that there is him Yuan Tuiguan in Jiangzhou but do not know that there is Cai Taishou. This may be the reason why Cai Jing wants to get rid of Yuan Wang for his son, after all, now as an official, the most important thing is reputation and fame, without which it is not so easy to be promoted.

As he spoke, more than ten miles passed in a flash, and soon everyone came to the city of Jiangzhou. This city is far inferior to Tokyo Bianliang naturally, the city wall is low and only about four zhang, and they are all built with rammed earth, and the city gate only allows two carriages to go in the opposite direction, but the word Jiangzhou on the city gate is strong, and it is from the famous handwriting at a glance.

Unlike other states and counties in the Great Song Dynasty, which were almost completely exempted from the city gate tax, I don't know if it was because of the obstruction of the trade route, but at this time there were officers and soldiers guarding the city gate, who not only had to check and interrogate the luggage of those who entered the city, but also collected ten wen per person to enter the city.

Seeing this, Tang Feng wanted to reveal his identity, but was stopped by Sun Tu's eyes, and paid the city gate tax of more than 100 yuan for his group, and then asked the other party unintentionally why the government wanted to set up a card here.

The officer and soldier lazily pouted at Sun Tu: "This is an order from above, we just listen to the order to guard the door, and the others don't dare to ask more." Hurry into your city, and if you dare to make any noise, be careful that I will arrest you as a thief and a spy. ”

Sun Tu only smiled when he saw this, and then he entered Jiangzhou with everyone, until this time, looking at the densely populated streets, he felt that this was in line with his imagination of Jiangzhou.

Subsequently, Sun Tu asked Luda, Yang Zhixian and Ya'er to find a nearby inn to settle down, while he himself took Tang Feng and went directly to the state government to meet his direct boss Yuan Wang.

Although he has just entered Jiangzhou, he doesn't want to be criticized in terms of etiquette, after all, his identity is here, and it is difficult to say that the other party will use this as an excuse to find his own wrong. Anyway, as a subordinate who performs his duties, going to meet him as soon as possible is the greatest respect for his boss.

There is no need to inquire about the direction, as long as you go along the main road in the city, when you come to the middle of the state city, you will see a magnificent yamen standing next to the market, and there are several soldiers standing with guns at the door, which is quite majestic.

After Sun Tu and them came to the front and showed their identity and intentions, a soldier went in to pass the ceremony, and after a while, a middle-aged man dressed as a scribe greeted him: "It turned out that Sun Tuanlian was coming, and Qin Fangxi, who was lowly and lowly as the state ya, was disappointed." ”

"Qin Zhusi doesn't need to be polite, I'm only here to ask to see Yuan Tuiguan, I wonder if he has time now?" Sun Tu asked with a friendly smile at the other party. In fact, he was just polite, and it stands to reason that if it is still early today, Yuan Wang, as the priest, should be happy to receive him.

But the result made him miscalculate, Qin Fang immediately said with a sad face: "Sun Tuan practiced forgiveness, and today Zhou Tui went to the prison camp early in the morning and has not returned, so ...... Why don't you come back tomorrow? ”