Chapter 219: The Counties

Chen Cheng stayed in Ji County for more than ten days, and when the soldiers and family members under Zhang Heng's command moved from Zhangye County to Wudu County, the wounded soldiers who had cultivated in Ji County were almost fine.

In the past, there were some rumors in Liangzhou, saying that Chen Yuanjun was a god, an immortal, or a strange beast, or a spirit, anyway, he was the kind of person with great mana, not only excellent martial arts, but also had the ability to raise the dead, flesh and bones. Among the lower-class people and Qiang people, there are many who believe this, and some of the Haoqiang and scholars are half-convinced, and some do not believe it at all, and scoff at such rumors.

But in the past ten days, the vast majority of the wounded soldiers who withdrew to Ji County have survived, and among those wounded soldiers who have recovered, there are even those whose stomachs have been cut and even their intestines have flowed out. The matter became more and more mysterious inside and outside the city, so that when Chen Cheng was walking his horse outside the city, he often met people who kowtowed to him, which also made him reduce the number of times he went out.

Lu Fang has already taken up the post of Hanyang Taishou, in addition to the governor, Changshi, and the county Cheng were directly appointed by the state governor in advance, there are still many vacancies in the county, and who is on and who is not is just a sentence from Lu Fang. Even if it is a cloth cloth or a prisoner, as long as he is too conservative and provoking, he can immediately become a human being.

In the political ecology of the Han family, the county taishou has almost all the rights, from taxation to judging cases, from sending troops to fight thieves to recruiting subordinate officials, except for a very few things, there is nothing he can't do. It is because Taishou has such great power that the Han people will develop the tradition of "treating the county as a country".

No matter what kind of thoughts the local heroes and scholars in Hanyang had, since Lu Fang had become the Taishou of Hanyang, he had the right to kill and kill the officials and people in the county. Even if Li Jun, Wang Ling and the others were appointed by the state pastor's office, they could only bow down to Lu Fang. This kind of atmosphere of treating the county as a country and treating Taishou as the lord is a legacy of history, even if Chen Cheng and Yan Zhong implemented the system of three provinces and six ministries and wanted to strengthen the centralization of power, it was impossible to reverse this trend in a short period of time.

After Lü Fang took office, he immediately used the methods of promotion from the army and local recruitment to replenish the civil and military officials under his command, and then began to govern Hanyang. It took him some time, and after sorting out the affairs of the county a little, he soon ran into a tricky matter.

In the Taishou Mansion, Lu Fang knelt on the futon, and the armor and hair crown on his body were neat and tidy, without a trace of disorder. Holding a roll of bamboo slips in his hand, he said in a deep voice to the dozen or so officials in front of him, "What do you mean by this? ”

Li Jun, as the governor of Hanyang, is a high-ranking official with a rank of 2,000 stones, and he can theoretically compete with Taishou. But theories are just theories, and no matter what aspect he looks at, he can't challenge Lu Fang's authority. Seeing Taishou asking, Li Jun bowed down, then straightened up, and said, "Longxian, Ayang and other places have always been the territory of Hanyang, how can they be attributed to the rule of Anding Taishou Ma Teng?" Please keep the lord of the book and take back the land that was cut out! ”

In order to win over the princes of Liangzhou to deal with Han Sui and Li Xiangru before, Chen Cheng promised them a lot of benefits, and the benefits to Ma Teng were the territory of the three counties of Longxian and Ayang. At that time, he just wanted to occupy some territory in Hanyang as a stronghold for the future south. However, the situation developed too fast, and since Hanyang Haojie had plans to defect from Han Sui, Chen Cheng also occupied the entire territory of Hanyang.

But in this way, it has caused the current situation of Hanyang being divided into two parts. On one side is the territory of Ayang in Longxian County occupied by Ma Teng, and on the other side is Jixian County and other places under the rule of Lu Fang. The Han Dynasty people's regional concept and clan concept were extremely strong, and such a thing was not acceptable, so after the affairs in the county were slightly sorted out, Li Jun, Yang Fu, Wang Ling and others led the county Chinese martial arts and gave Lu Fang such a problem.

Lu Fang was silent for a while, and then asked rhetorically: "Don't you know that letting Ma Teng occupy Longxian and other places is the meaning of the lord?" ”

Yang Fu came out of the queue and said: "At this time, at that time, when Longxian and other places were ceded, Hanyang was in the hands of Han Sui. Now that Taishou is in power, it is very different from before, and it is time to take back the castle that was ceded out. ”

Lu Fang snorted and said, "I know what you mean, I will deal with this matter." Do you have anything else? ”

Everyone looked at each other, and then said in unison, "Nothing else." ”

"Since it's okay, let's all step down!"

The civil and military officials bowed down together, "No! ”

Lu Fang is a typical Han man, with a slight understanding of literature and ink, superb martial arts, and a strong heart for meritorious work. When he was still the captain of the Yue Cavalry Battalion, he was thinking about how to climb up while practicing martial arts. When he became the Governor of the Northland, he thought that there would be a day when he would be appointed as a Taishou.

According to the Han system, the taishou is a very important part of the official's resume. Only after serving at least one term as a taishou can he enter the center and become a pivotal figure in the court. Like Yan Zhong and Zhao Yun, who ascended to the sky step by step and directly entered the central government as the chief official, it was only possible at the beginning of the foundation of the foundation. When the regime stabilizes, it's hard to do that again.

Lu Fang had thought about how to govern if he sat in the position of Taishou, but when he really became a county Taishou, he found that many of his previous ideas could not be implemented at all.

Hanyang was the territory of the imperial court more than ten years ago, but it was later captured by the Western Liang army and then fell into the hands of Han Sui. There are many local heroes, because there are many Qiang people in the territory, and because of the repeated wars, the martial wind is very strong. Haoqiang and the scholars gathered to live together, built Wu Fort, occupied thousands of fertile land, and raised hundreds of tribal families, when Han Sui's army was at its peak, he could not completely subdue the Haoqiang in the county, what could he rely on to make people obedient?

There is no clear confrontation yet, but he has already encountered a lot of soft nails. Today, the Chinese military officials of the county wrote together to make a statement, seemingly to seek revenge from Longxian and other places, but why not challenge his authority as a taishou?

Wherever there are factions and conflicts of interest. Because of origin, because of the region, because of the concept, because of the nature, people will be divided into various factions, with various conflicts of large or small, open or covert, but in the final analysis, it is essentially a conflict of interests.

Lu Fang was already a cavalry lieutenant in command of 500 people a long time ago, he had been in the northern army for a long time, and he had been in the position of the governor of the northern land for a year, and he had long understood the things in this world, either the east wind overwhelmed the west wind, or the west wind overwhelmed the east wind, and if he wanted to live in harmony, it was only possible when one of them completely bowed his head and admitted defeat.

After all these days, he figured it out. Yes, the lord can pull out more than 100,000 troops, but if he really gathers so many soldiers and horses, it will not be far from financial bankruptcy. No one will make up their minds until the situation is urgent.

Moreover, if everything depends on the state governor's office, then is there still a need for him, the Hanyang Taishou, to stay? However, since the lord is still in Ji County, there are some things to ask him for, which is also a sign of respect.

While thinking about it, Lu Fang stepped on the horse's back and beat the horse towards the place where Chen Cheng was staying. The autumn breeze gradually rises, blowing on people's bodies, which will bring a little coolness. The clouds in the sky were thickened, obscuring the sun's brilliance. It won't take a day or two for an autumn rain to fall.

Fortunately, the crops in the field have been harvested, so there is no need to worry about the loss of production due to rain.

He looked up at the sky, then jumped off his horse and said to the four tooth soldiers guarding outside the gate: "Please report it, and say that Hanyang is too shou Lu Fang to see the lord." ”

Seeing Lu Fang coming over with more than a dozen cavalrymen, the tooth soldiers had already recognized his identity, and immediately said, "Lu Taishou, please wait." ”

After a while, the tooth soldier came out and said, "The lord asks Taishou to come in." ”

Lu Fang tidied up the placket on his body and walked in with his head held high. He is now a true Taishou of two thousand stones, and his level is only below Yan Zhong and Yang Qiu, and even the tooth soldiers who are above the top are also much more polite to him. Not to mention that Lu Fang has a lot of prestige in the army, and many of the tooth soldiers have even served under him before.

Chen Cheng took dozens of horsemen out of the city in the morning for a turn, and in the afternoon, he was at the resting place to sort out the diary of the Eastern Expedition, and when he heard Lu Fang coming, he put down what he was doing and met him in the lobby.

Lu Fang followed the tooth soldiers to the bottom of the lobby, took off his shoes, stepped on the wooden floor and saluted, and said: "Minister, Hanyang guards Lu Fang too much, and meets the lord." ”

His movements and attitude are impeccable, and the style of Li Kan Liang Xing and others is obviously different. As his status became higher and higher, Lu Fang's requirements for himself also rose, and the little jealousy he had for Zhao Yun had long since disappeared the moment he boarded Hanyang Taishou. In the past, he was jealous that Zhao Yun and Chen Cheng had a closer relationship, but now that his position is above Zhao Yun, it is also something that can be seen, so what reason is there to be jealous?

Chen Cheng saw that the other party's behavior was more rigorous than before, and said in his heart: After all, he came out of the Northern Army, which is different from the heroic power of Xiliang. Seeing that Lu Fang's temperament was a little different from the past, he secretly said: Residence and movement, nourishment and body, honestly!

"Lu Taishou came here today, but what's the matter?"

Today is about business, and Chen Cheng's attitude is not so casual, and there is no pretending to be relaxed.

Lu Fang told the whole story of the matter, and then said: "Ma Teng is too stable and guarded, but he occupies the city of Hanyang. The minister thought that this matter was inappropriate. ”

Longxian and other places were taken by Lu Fang with the help of Ma Teng, although there was no real fight, but if he hadn't sent troops to threaten and put on the posture of Chen Cheng and Ma Teng joining forces, how could Longxian and other places be taken down so easily?

Ma Teng's experience and reasons for getting Longxian and other places, Lu Fang is clear, but as Li Jun and others said, at this time, at that time, he was not Hanyang Taishou at that time, so he didn't have to worry about the ownership of the city. Now that he has achieved the position of being too guarded, he can't ignore it.

Chen Cheng pondered for a moment and said, "I also know that this is inappropriate, but the matter has come to this, what about it?" ”

I also know that there is something wrong with the way I handled it before, but what can I do when things have come to this point?

Lu Fang said in a deep voice: "Please issue an edict to the lord to order Ma Teng to withdraw the soldiers and horses stationed in the four counties of Hanyang." ”

Chen Cheng snorted and said, "Are you trying to make me go back on my word?" ”

"Don't dare," Lu Fang said: "There is a lot of discussion in the county, and the minister doesn't know how to deal with it, so he reports it and asks the lord to decide." ”