It is said that Lu Zhen has been in this era for several years, and he has been an official for many years, but he has never been as relaxed as the current Ulzhou Zhizhou.

Since he came to office, he has hardly encountered any embarrassment and resistance, as long as he issues an order, the officials below will implement it without discount, and the security inside and outside the city is also quite good. Even the imaginary danger of the border has never appeared.

If this continues, perhaps by the time of next year, as long as the state government can still pay the tax grain on time and in quantity, it should be easy to get a good evaluation, not to mention anything else.

The reason why everything went so smoothly was that in addition to the fact that the officials in the yamen knew that they had a background, and the Wang family was also quite cooperative, another reason that could not be ignored was that Lu Zhen also met a former old man in this Ulzhou City - the little officer who was guarding Guangling at the beginning, and now the commander of the garrison in Ulzhou City, Wang Bing, deputy Qianhu!

As a border town, Ulju naturally has a large garrison in addition to the common people like other cities, which is used to guard against possible Mongol attacks at all times. And the status of the generals of this army stationed in the city is naturally quite high, like the former Guangling general Xiao Mo, although his status in the army is extremely low, but he has great power in the local area, and it is difficult to even suppress the county.

And now in Ulzhou, not only has the army in the city doubled, there are more than 1,000, but their leader has also changed from the general to the deputy thousand, so its power is naturally greater.

However, this time, it is impossible to have a dispute in Guangling County back then, because the relationship between Wang Bing and Lu Zhen is quite good. It can even be said that a large part of the reason why Wang Bing was able to rise from a low-level officer to today's position of deputy Qianhu in just a few years came from a victory in Guangling City that day, and he was naturally grateful to Lu Jin.

A few days ago, when Lu Jin first entered Ulzhou, Wang Bing happened to go to Datong to report on military affairs, and when he came back and learned that Lu Jin had arrived, he didn't say a word, so he hurriedly came to the state government to meet him.

The appearance of him running in a hurry really frightened many people in the yamen, everyone thought that he was looking for trouble with Lu Zhizhou, and he was still struggling with what to do in the event of a dispute. Unexpectedly, as soon as the two met, Wang Bing actually knelt down on one knee directly and made a big salute to Lu Jin, which stunned everyone.

Lu Zhen was also a little distracted, and it took a while to react, and recognized the identity of the other party, so he hurriedly stepped forward to help, and the two really said goodbye to each other. Then it was to set up wine to catch the wind or something, and during the banquet, Wang Bing mentioned all the things when he was defending the city, and the two sighed again.

It is precisely because everyone knows that even Wang Qianhu has a deep friendship with Lu Jin, so that other people in the yamen no longer dare to have different intentions. In such border cities, sometimes these Qiu Ba have much more power than the officials, and if you really provoke them, they can slaughter you with one sword, and they are not too implicated, so it is naturally better to back down against such a character.

When the news got out, even the state government became much more powerful than before. The rich households, who were still a little hesitant at first, hurriedly lent out the grain as requested by the government, so that after entering November, the state government had already gathered more than 1,000 stone of grain that needed to be sent to Datong.

The next thing to do is just to send it safely to Datong and hand it over.

However, Lu Jin's subsequent decision surprised many people inside and outside the yamen, and he actually planned to personally take someone to escort this batch of grain to Datong!

In this regard, although everyone is accustomed to obeying his orders, they still can't help but dissuade at this time: "Why do you have to take such a hard time. As long as you let a few officials bring some people and soldiers and horses, you can get things done. After all, the road to Datong is not too easy to walk. ”

This is true, in order to resist the Mongols and delay their iron cavalry offensive, the roads between the prefectures and counties of Shanxi are bumpy, and there are even more mountain roads and woods. It's already quite inconvenient to just ride lightly, let alone escort a large amount of supplies to hurry.

But Lu Zhen shook his head and insisted on his decision: "Your good intentions are understood, but this time I went to Datong, not only to send grain and grass, but also to discuss with my boss Yamen about the appropriation and other matters for the coming year. ”

There is not only a bottom-to-top payment of taxes and grain between the boss and the subordinates, but also a large amount of money at the beginning of each year to let the states and counties repair the city walls, dredge the rivers, or deal with other related matters. For the generally poor prefectures and counties in Datong, this amount is quite important, and it is naturally a good thing to get more. For this reason, officials from all over the country will always rush to Datong before the year, ostensibly to report on various official affairs, but in fact, they have come to fate.

Of course, generally speaking, this kind of thing is done by other officials of the state government, and there is no need for him, the governor, to come forward in person. But since Lu Zhen said so, it's hard for everyone to stop it. And everyone knows that Lu Zhen is still quite famous in Shanxi, maybe he will come forward, and things will be easier to say.

So after Lu Zhen gave this reasonable explanation, everyone no longer insisted, but just said some flattery and flattery, and then they dispersed. However, they didn't know that Lu Jin's plan to go to Datong was not only for the sake of Ulzhou, but also for his selfish intentions, that is, to try to persuade the officials of Datong Prefecture, and Hu Sui, who is now still the general army of Datong, to let them adopt his suggestion.

Naturally, this kind of important matter cannot be faked to others, and it cannot be delayed - Chu Yunrong and his own letters have been sent, and they will be sent to Suzhou within the next year, and then Lu Renjia and Chu Xiangyu will start to buy local grain and prepare for shipment, which is a lot of money if it is delayed for a long time.

After convincing everyone, Lu Jin finally settled down, and then he should worry about the safety of Datong.

Although the Mongolian people have not posed any threat to Daming recently, this does not mean that Shanxi is absolutely safe here. There are no external enemies, but there are internal troubles - horse thieves!

I don't know if it's because of the location in the frontier, the local people in Shanxi are quite martial, and some people even have horses at home. The reality of poverty here has made some people begin to become restless, and they look like ordinary people on weekdays, but sometimes they gather in groups and become horse thieves and robbers who block the road and rob people. And what makes them even more a headache for the government is that there is no ordinary bandit base at all, and they often scatter after grabbing a vote, and it is very difficult to find them and exterminate them.

In this way, these horse thieves and bandits have become a disease in Shanxi, although it is not serious, but it is also quite troublesome, because no one knows when they will do it, and whose things will be robbed. Although there has never been a situation where the things of the government have been looted by them, Lu Zhen also has to be on guard against what is not.

And his way to deal with this possible hidden danger is to borrow troops from Wang Bing.

After hearing what Lu Zhen meant, Wang Bing frowned unconsciously: "Lord Lu, why do you take this risk? In fact, the safest way is to send someone to Datong to deliver a message, and they will naturally send someone to transport grain. ”

Lu Zhen just smiled when he heard this, not to mention that he didn't have such a big face and courage as a subordinate, just because of his other two reasons, it was impossible not to take this trip.

Seeing Lu Jin's smile with such a deep meaning, Wang Bing had already guessed that he had other intentions, so he stopped persuading. However, the embarrassment on his face has not diminished: "I'm not afraid of offending adults, this matter will indeed be a little embarrassing." Although the Mongolian people have been quite peaceful in the past few years, this is a border town after all, and the garrison here cannot be moved lightly according to the rules. Even before the last general, he went to Datong to report on his work, but he only brought a hundred personal soldiers. ”

What he said was also the truth, with the rules of the court and the army, the army naturally cannot be deployed at will, otherwise it can even be regarded as having bad intentions, and it is okay to rebel. As for other crimes such as desertion without permission, they are even more arrested.

Lu Zhen couldn't help but be stunned, he was not a military general after all, and he really didn't know much about the doorway, and after listening to it, he also knew that he was a little abrupt. However, relying only on those people, as well as the few servants of the county government, at most they can only scare and scare the thieves, and if they really encounter any emergencies, they may not be able to save everything.

Seeing Lu Jin's loss, Wang Bing was also a little ashamed in his heart. No matter how you say it, you can only be promoted to the position of the current thousand households thanks to the blessing of the other party. If something happened to Lu Jinzhen because of his hesitation, he would definitely blame himself in his heart.

Although the military generals are rude, they are much more bold than the civilian officials. After some weighing, Wang Bing finally gritted his teeth: "In this way, Lord Lu, the last general will transfer my 100 personal soldiers to your subordinates." However, they are not allowed to wear military uniforms, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble when it spreads. ”

Lu Jin, who originally wanted to give up, was immediately overjoyed when he said this, but then said: "But in this way, you have to take some responsibility." ”

"Don't worry, my lord, generally speaking, nothing will happen, as long as there is no general patrolling here, no one will know about these hundred or so people." Wang Bing said with a smile.

Lu Zhen no longer shirked, but solemnly hugged his fists and said: "So thank you Wang Qianhu for your righteous help." "With this hundred elites, if you want to come here and go to Datong, you should sit back and relax.