The spring rain is like silk, such as fog, such as smoke, such as tide, through this wisp of silk, all things in the world are like faint, misty freehand paintings, flickering, the smoke and rain on the Hexi corridor in March came slowly, a large area of grassland is covered with dense tender grass, a group of cattle and sheep in the endless, such as the light green carpet leisurely gnawing on the tender grass, a few eleven or twelve years old teenagers galloped on the grassland, drove a few playful cows back to the group, hearty laughter penetrated the misty rain and fog, and flew straight to the sky.

On the edge of the Yellow River, the ice has disappeared, and the surging water of the Yellow River has already pushed the huge ice blocks away, and the surface of the Yellow River is a vast ocean, and in the distance a fleet full of supplies is sailing from the north against the current.

At this moment, the original quiet Yellow River is also very lively, in the west valley, a narrow type of solid castle prototype has risen from the ground, it is about three miles long, more than 500 steps wide, one side is close to the cliff of Wusheling Ridge, the other side is overlooking the Yellow River in the east, inside and outside the castle, nearly 20,000 people are nervously busy, some shouting the trumpet, hanging a huge ashline stone on the city wall, some people are shouldering the burden of walking like flying, sending buckets of mortar for masonry into the construction site, and in the crowd from time to time there are also women figures, The hard-working men are no less than men, and most of them do small jobs to support their families on a small wage.

About 100 steps north of the castle, Zhang Huan was inspecting the construction progress of the castle in the company of dozens of officials, the castle was started at the end of last year, due to the hundreds of thousands of ashlars transported from the county, the progress of the project was greatly accelerated, coupled with the abundant financial guarantee, even in the New Year, the construction period has not been interrupted, less than three months, the prototype of a majestic castle has been standing on the west bank of the Yellow River.

"Governor, everyone in this castle calls it West Fort, but some people like to call it Black Sheath Fort, and ask the Governor to correct its name." It was Du May, who was in charge of overseeing the castle, and although he was only a staff member, he had no actual position. However, during the period when Zhang Huan was absent from Wuwei, he took on the work of coordinating the operation of the entire Wuwei County's government affairs, and gradually became familiar with the operation of various government affairs. It was thanks to his efforts and supervision that the construction of the castle land was carried out in an orderly manner.

Zhang Huan returned to Wuwei County for nearly two months, and soon after his return, the various appointments of the imperial court began to be implemented one by one, Duan Xiushi was named the Shuofang Jiedu envoy as he wished, and at the same time, the last group of family members of the army also moved from Longyou to Hexi, as a quid pro quo between the two sides, Zhang Huan immediately ordered the county to be handed over to Longyou, after the completion of a series of local interest reorganization. The situation in the entire Helong area has gradually stabilized, and it has been almost half a year since Zhang Huan entered Hexi, and it is not until this moment that the Wuwei County area in Hexi really belongs to him.

Next, his goal is to make himself strong as soon as possible, a warlord who has no strength. It can only be someone else's delicacy, he has too many things to do, first of all, to count the population, check the land, meet with officials, sort out the paperwork and account books, when a family first has to find out his own family background, and then he has to breed horses, smelt weapons, cultivate land, develop trade, build cities, etc., although he brought a lot of money from Hedong, but in the long run he did not think of development. In the end, it will only be a matter of sitting and eating, and then it will be to open schools, cultivate talents, innovate technology, etc., and eat food in one bite, and the road must be walked step by step. If you are in a hurry, you will not be able to achieve it quickly, but although things are complicated, you always have to find a breakthrough first.

"Governor!" Seeing that Zhang Huan didn't seem to hear his question, Du Mei smiled and said again: "Dudu, please correct the name of the castle." ”

"Oh!" Zhang Huan smiled apologetically. He looked back at the crowd, "What are your names?" ”

When the castle was built, there was a lot of opposition to it. Local officials in Wuwei, in particular, believe that everything is in ruins. There are many places that need money, and the construction of the castle costs a lot, it is not suitable to build at this time, money is secondary, after all, most of them are brought by Zhang Huan himself, the key is that the military directly recruited nearly 20,000 laborers in the counties, did not pass through the local government, aroused the dissatisfaction of local officials, in order to eliminate everyone's doubts, Zhang Huan specially led these local officials of Wuwei County to experience it on the spot today.

"It is in the west of Huijun, and it is the first city in Hexi, and the name Huixi Fort is also worthy of its name, and the subordinates also agree to name it Huixi Fort." The scorched face of Tianbao County county commander Li Hanjie took the lead in answering, he was Zhang Huan's hand, so he showed the most enthusiasm along the way, Zhang Huan must answer every question, so that other county orders despise him, Wuwei County has a total of five counties, Shenwu, Guzang, Tianbao, Jialin, Changsong, most of the county orders are appointed by Xin Yunjing, everyone has been in office for many years, and the young new lord is still a little uncomfortable.

Zhang Huan nodded, and asked the others, "What is your opinion?" ”

Everyone looked at each other, and more than a dozen small officials echoed each other: "Li County's order is good, and it is very good to meet Xibao." ”

The other county commanders and county officials were silent, Zhang Huan glanced at them, and then turned back to Du Mei and said lightly: "Since they all think that it is good to call it Huixi Fort, then we will settle down and call it Hui Xibao." ”

"Yes! The subordinates then went to arrange? ”

"Mr. Du, I don't know anything." A slender middle-aged county magistrate suddenly pointed to a few women who were carrying the burden and asked coldly: "Why does Mr. Du still use women, the army has requisitioned 20,000 strong men is not enough?" If you want these women to come here to do heavy work, does Mr. Du want to use women to pay for Ding Zhuang? ”

The words are very polite, and the meaning is also very clear, that is, Du Mei used his head to impersonate and embezzle from it.

This county order surnamed Yan, is the largest county in Wuwei County: the county order of Shenwu County, Shenwu County is also the county where the county is located, in this collection of people, nearly 8,000 people came to Xibao to repair the city, so that Yan County Order was extremely dissatisfied.

The transportation of the Tang Dynasty was not very developed, the court's document transmission generally relied on the post station, the post station in various places was destroyed during the Anshi Rebellion, although it was repaired one after another, but the seven great families in order to weaken the imperial court's control over the territory under their jurisdiction, they deliberately obstructed the construction of the post station, so that the number of post stations in various places was much less than before, the Central Plains region was slightly better, and some remote counties were even more closed to news, and many decrees of the imperial court could not be known for several months or even half a year.

This is the case in the Hexi region, there is no post station here, and there is a natural danger of the Yellow River, so the news is even more closed, plus the road was closed by heavy snow first, and then the Yellow River thawed. The boat is not good, which makes many people's thinking stop at last year.

So how did Zhang Huan get into Hexi? What really happened in Chang'an on New Year's Day? Most of the lower-level officials in Wuwei County did not know about it, but the concept that the Helong region was the world of the Wei family was deeply ingrained in their hearts. Xinyun Kyoto, which has been entrenched for more than ten years, was driven away by the Wei family, not to mention that a young man in his twenties was just a fluke, and sooner or later he would be cleaned up by the Wei family, so he must not blindly obey, let alone stand on the wrong side, so as not to be liquidated by the Wei family in the future.

Therefore, during the construction of the West Fort this time, Du Mei asked the local government to recruit people several times, and the officials of the counties found all kinds of excuses to prevaricate. So that Du Mei had to rely on the army to recruit people.

After Zhang Huan returned from Chang'an, he also realized the seriousness of the problem, but on the one hand, he did not have many people at his disposal, and on the other hand, these officials had been officials in Wuwei for many years, and their family power was intertwined. If he acted hastily, he was afraid that he would leave hidden dangers, so he held back and waited for the opportunity.

Of the five county orders in Wuwei County, except for the most remote and impoverished Tianbao county order, which was appointed by himself and was relatively obedient, the remaining four county orders were all in violation of the law, and the population inventory data, land inventory records, and the farmland in each county all had a large amount of water and could not be used as a basis for decision-making at all.

So this time he brought them to visit the construction of Huixi Fort, and Zhang Huan's real purpose was to touch their bottom first. At this moment, when he saw that Yan Xian ordered Du Mei to attack Du Mei with the matter of employing women, he smiled and said nothing, watching the situation continue to develop backwards.

Sure enough, Du Mei was stunned at first. Immediately, his face swelled red, he was born as a Jinshi, how could he allow others to insult his innocence, he pointed at Yan Xianling and said angrily: "You, you are talking nonsense, when will I use a woman to pretend to be a strong man?" I have an account there. You go and see! ”

Yan Xianling ignored him. He immediately stopped a woman and asked, "How much do you earn in a day?" ”

When the woman saw such a large group of officials questioning her, she was so frightened that she quickly put down her burden. He bowed his head and replied, "Back to my lord, I can earn eight wen a day." ”

"Bawen!" Yan Xian Ling snorted heavily, and then squinted at Du Mei and said coldly: "A man can earn thirty wen a day, but a woman only has eight wen, which official in my Hexi for more than ten years dares to be so mean to the people, but you dare, even if you don't fill your pockets, but you are a cool official, what qualifications do you have to be an official in my Hexi, go back to your Xiangyang!" I have Hexi people to do my own Hexi things. ”

"That's it! All right! Yan County ordered you to say a few words. At this time, the county magistrate of Changsong County hurriedly came up to play a round, and he pushed Yan Xianling aside and complained in a low voice: "Zhang Tingshi didn't say anything, what kind of mouth do you have, don't you make people hate?" ”

He persuaded while talking, but he secretly glanced at Zhang Huan, and saw that he was expressionless, so he was slightly relieved, and pulled the sleeve of Yan County's order again, and asked him to stop.

Du Mei's face next to him was red and white, although he was a very scheming person, but when it came to his reputation, he couldn't bear it, and he was about to ridicule him, but suddenly saw Zhang Huan make a look at him, and then he suddenly woke up, and stood aside and hated it.

Zhang Huan saw that the scene was unpleasant, so he smiled and said to Yan County: "Yan County's order is a good place to care about the people, but some words are inevitably overspoken, Mr. Du will never use a woman to pretend to be a man, you have to take back this sentence, but the woman's eight wen a day also seems to be slightly lower, in this way, I will be in charge, and the woman's salary will be adjusted to fifteen wen a day." ”

Speaking of this, he looked at Du Mei and said, "Can Mr. Du agree?" ”

"These women are just doing small jobs, and it is customary to give them eight wen a day, and since the governor is sympathetic to the people, his subordinates will do it."

"What about you?" Zhang Huan looked at Yan County's order coldly and said, "If you used a woman to pay Ding Zhuang just now, should Yan's county order be withdrawn?" ”

"The subordinates are angry in their hearts, and they have said it for a while, and I am willing to take it back." Yan Xian Ling arched his hand to Du Mei again and said apologetically: "Please understand, Mr. Du!" ”

Du Mei snorted, but still didn't say a word, at this moment, several horses galloped from a distance, and Lao Yuan shouted loudly: "The grain ship of the Imperial Court of the Governor has arrived!" ”

Zhang Huan was overjoyed, this was the first batch of grain transferred by the imperial court, which meant that Pei Jun began to implement his support, as long as he had food in his hands, he could expand the army, stabilize prices, and even start the restructuring of land.

"Let's go! Go to the pier and have a look. He got on his horse and galloped first towards the dock, and the officials behind him also mounted and galloped after him.

The wharf is only three miles away from Huixi Fort, and it has just been built recently, and the wharf is about 500 steps long. Before the Huixi Fort was repaired, the 2,000 troops led by Li Hengqiu and Xin Lang were temporarily stationed near the dock. At this moment, there was already a crowd of people on the wharf, and nearly 1,000 soldiers were waiting to get on the boat to carry grain, and there were already seven or eight large ships of 3,000 stone docked on the wharf, and there were four or five boats waiting to dock in the Yellow River.

The big ships came from the east of the river, carrying about 30,000 stone of grain, and 10,000 catties of pig iron, and all the boats had a deep draft, so it could be seen that they were full of goods.

"Go sick!" Zhang Huan had just arrived at the dock when a young man in a white robe rushed out of the crowd. waved his arm to him excitedly, but it was Pei Mingyuan, the fifth son of Pei Jundi, who came to take office.

Zhang Huan jumped off the horse, laughed and met him, and gave him a hard punch in the shoulder socket. "I haven't moved for more than two months, I thought you didn't want to come!"

"How so?" Pei Mingyuan rubbed his shoulder socket that was beaten and painful, and said with a wry smile: "My father ordered me to study in the Hebei Army for two months, so that I would not be embarrassed by coming to Hexi to catch the black." ”

"How is my father-in-law, did Ying'er bring him the earth lingzhi and receive it?"

"I don't know." Pei Mingyuan suddenly remembered something, and laughed in a low voice: "I heard that you kidnapped Cui Ning too, but I can't think of the two of you."

Pei Mingyuan winked ambiguously. "Aren't you afraid that Cui Xiangguo will trouble you?"

Zhang Huan smiled and said: "Of course I know that he will hate me to the bone, but I am not worried that he will make any trouble for me, in that case, he will not be Cui Xiangguo." ”

"It's better to go to the sick brother to see it thoroughly!"

Pei Mingyuan laughed. He took Zhang Huan's wrist and walked quickly to the bow of the boat, pointed to a tall and fat official and introduced him: "This is Shi Li Maogong, the governor of Fanyang Jiedu, and this time he is in charge of grain and pig iron." ”

Zhang Huan arched his hand to him and smiled: "Li Changshi escorted the supplies all the way, Zhang Huan is grateful!" ”

"Where! Where! Zhang Dudu is Pei Xiangguo's beloved son-in-law, and they are all a family. You're welcome. Li Maogong hurriedly gave Zhang Huan a salute back. He pointed to the materials being unloaded by the first big ship and said with a smile: "This time, several ladies also specially sent some household things to the young lady, and I will ask the governor to bring them back later." ”

Then. Zhang Huan suddenly saw more than 20 young people standing in the distance, each of them was excited and a little nervous, some were curiously looking at the surrounding environment, and some were rolling up their sleeves, ready to help carry rice.

Pei Mingyuan saw Zhang Huan's doubts, and he laughed in a low voice: "Speaking of which, the sick brother may not believe it, your discussion at the New Year's court in the first month caused a stir among the scholars who participated in the imperial examination, these 20 or so people are all members of the Guozi Prison, they are all going to put pen to paper and serve you to recover the Western Regions, there may be many people coming, junior brother congratulate you first." ”

Zhang Huan secretly rejoiced in his heart, what he lacked most now was people, the arrival of these scholars would undoubtedly bring him great help, but this joy Zhang Huan did not show, he interjected the topic and smiled at Li Maogong: "Li Changshi might as well leave a few days later, go to Wuwei County, and let Zhang Huan do his best to be a landlord." ”

Li Maogong smiled apologetically and said, "No! This time, Xiangguo has prepared a total of 100,000 stone of grain, and I have to transport it twice more to complete, and the time is urgent, so I can only stay for one night today at most, and set off early tomorrow morning. ”

Due to the huge amount of supplies, Du Mei transferred another 1,000 people from Huixi Fort to help, and it soon became dark, and there were at least two days to go from the Yellow River to Wuwei County, so Zhang Huan and the officials rested on the big boat.

The night is already very deep, the wind and waves on the river are fierce, more than a dozen big ships are tied up and down on the wharf, the wharf is bright, hundreds of hunting torches will illuminate the wharf as if it were day, the unloading of grain and pig iron has gradually come to an end, and 30,000 stones of grain are piled up like three swarthy hills.

In a cabin on the second big ship, Zhang Huanzheng and Du Mei discussed the follow-up project of Xibao, and there was a small sand table five feet square on the table in front of them, which clearly showed the terrain of the entire Wuwei County, there were two such sand tables, one large sand table occupied a whole half of the room in Zhang Huan's study in Wuwei County, and this small one was carried by Zhang Huan, replacing the map.

Zhang Huan pointed to Wusheling with a wooden pole and said: "Wusheling stretches for hundreds of miles, Huixi Fort is in the easternmost part, and Wuwei County is in the middle section, I mean it is best to build twenty beacon towers on the mountain range, one every ten miles, so that if something happens to Huixi Fort, Wuwei County will know immediately." ”

"The Governor's idea is good, but it's also extremely labor-intensive, and I'm a little worried that we can't afford such a large expense." Du Mei sighed, and said: "Besides, today's strict county order also has a certain truth, if the governor does not cherish the people's power, I am afraid it will affect your reputation in Hexi." ”

"I paid someone to repair the beacon tower, why should I lose any people's strength?"

Speaking of Yan County's order, Zhang Huan sneered disdainfully: "You are going to fall for him, what he said today is actually insinuating me, but he is saying it to Wei Ge in Longyou." ”

Du Mei nodded lightly in agreement, "What is the Governor going to do with them?" ”

As soon as the words fell, the hatch door was knocked lightly, and a personal soldier said outside the door: "Governor, the order of Li County of Tianbao County asks for a meeting, saying that there is a confidential report." ”