Accompanied by the county commander Qin Mingshan, Zhang Yue and Feng Qianhou and Quan Daojin led the troops into the city, a small official led the way, and the deputy commander He Chenghui led the troops to live in a large mansion that was temporarily cleared. Zhang Zhixing took ten personal soldiers to enter the county government with Zhang Yue and directly went to the court to ask questions.

Zhang Yue took Feng Qianhou and Quan Dao to listen on the side, Qin Mingshan sat in the main seat, he first asked the master to find the county's household registration files, as well as tax account books, criminal case files, a county's administrative work is mainly these three items. The other subcategories are all branches of these three items.

"The name of the humble post is Zhang Jingzhen, who is the chief secretary of the county, and is responsible for the management of these, and the county has 16 townships, with a total of 850 households and 8,100 ......."

"Stop!" Before the county master finished speaking, Zhang Yue couldn't listen to it anymore.

This data is too watery, there are 16 townships in a central county, the number of households is not more than 1,000, and the number of mouths is 8,000, how many people are in this household? Could it be that every family is a grange, there are countless slaves, and all of them are wealthy?

"How many households are paying taxes? Who are the main taxpayers? Report the real number! Zhang Yue waved his hand and pointed to the crux of the matter.

"Those who are registered are all required to pay taxes, and there are more than 30 households with more farmland." Speaking of this, Zhang Jingzhen, the county chief bookkeeper, was a little uneasy.

"Immediately write a report on the resumes of the family members of these more than 30 households and the property they own, and give it to me early tomorrow morning and leave! Qin County ordered me to go to the post house with me. Zhang Yue stood up and strode away with a black face.

When I arrived at the front hall of the county government, there was a separate compound here, which was specially used to entertain visiting officials, Zhang Yue now lived here, and the soldiers were already standing guard outside the door. The county government arranged for several servants to temporarily live in the outer courtyard so that they could serve the officials' food and daily life.

The three of them sat down in the hall, and Zhang Yue said dissatisfiedly: "Qin County Order! What's the situation in your county? Is it the incompetence of the subordinates in the county, or are you incompetent? If there are any difficulties, you can also talk about them! ”

"If you don't hide the rules and inspections, it's not that the lower officials don't want to do things! The number of registered soldiers in the Yanzhou Marshal's Mansion is ten commanders, and there are also scattered officials who are not in the formation, many of which are from the county, plus a number of officials under the Marshal's Mansion, hundreds of officials from the state government, and officials from the county, plus the big households in the county. What the county can do is to maintain it as much as possible, and I hope that the situation will improve after the fall of the Gao family! Qin Mingshan had a bitter look on his face, and he counted carefully with his fingers.

"It seems that this is a bit difficult to do, and the same is true for other counties?" Zhang Yue frowned and asked.

"This is the case in several counties around Fushi, the three counties in the north and the three counties in the south are better, but they are very poor, and they are all lower counties." Qin Mingshan was very clear about the situation in the entire Yanzhou, and he was very sure at this time.

"The world is as black as a crow! I remember that the situation in Hebei was similar, and the situation in Tangzhou and Yuezhou in the south was slightly better. Zhang Yue smiled bitterly.

"Are there any big businesses in Yanzhou? Or the business situation in this county, you should know a little. Feng Qianhou spoke beside him.

"There are a few engaged in business, the largest merchant in the county is Liu Xiancheng's younger brother, named Liu Xiansheng, he spent money to buy a commander's official title, but never went to the Shuaifu on an errand, only with Zhang Quanxu, the son of the Zhang family of the Yanzhou clan, to Shuofang to sell green salt and cattle and horse skins, and went south to Guanzhong to sell them in bulk. The others were petty traders, I don't remember exactly. Qin Mingshan explained.

"Excellent! I am tired of Qin County to go back and sort out a roster of vendors, resumes, and prices of the goods sold, and give it to me tomorrow morning. Zhang Yue's eyes lit up when he heard this, and the administrative and market trade situation in Yanzhou gradually became clear in his heart.

At breakfast the next day, Qin County Ling sent two small books, one for household registration and taxation, and the other for commerce. Zhang Yue took it and flipped through it at random, feeling very satisfied, and handed it to Quan Daojin and asked him to take a closer look.

"If you go south to Linzhen County today, you must also concoct a statement and account book in the same way. This Qin County Order is quite good, some county officials are very slippery, don't be deceived by them, but you can't be rude, understand? "Quan Daojin has read, although he is not very literate, he can read official documents and military newspapers, Zhang Yue plans to train him well.

"Humble duty understood! Hey...... If the writing is not clear, I will ask them to write it a few more times! "Quan Daojin is more than 20 years old, although he is five big and three thick, and he has two mustaches, he looks like a martial artist, but his mind is very delicate.

"Haha...... That's it! Zhang Yue laughed and patted Quan Daojin's shoulder, and then ordered: "You finish your errand and go to finish the affairs of Jincheng County, the camp will not be moved for the time being, and it is still there." ”

"Is it because the will of the DPRK and China has not come down?" Quan Daojin asked with a smile.

"Give you a little sunshine and it will shine! Talkative! "Before the officer reaches the rank, he shouldn't think about political matters, and of course Zhang Yue won't tell him.

As soon as the sun climbed the mountain, Zhang Yue led his troops out of the city, transferred one to three to give Quan Dao as his entourage, and led his own soldiers and a total of 300 people from the fourth and fifth to the northeast. First, I spent one night in Yanshui County, a poor rural area on the highlands by the Yellow River, with a small population and a small household tax. The Yellow River in this place is turbulent, and it is impossible to sail boats, so you can only use sheepskin rafts to find a gentle river bay to cross the river, so there are very few merchants, basically all of them are farmers, and they are also engaged in fishing and hunting.

Yanchuan County in the northwest is better, because of the border with Suizhou, the Dangxiang Qiang people often drive the extra cattle and horse fur south, in exchange for daily necessities such as salt, cloth and silk, of course, they do not understand the market, often can not sell at a good price, feel cheated, simply cross the border to loot. However, there was no garrison in the county, and the city gates were often closed.

These are still the familiar Qiang in the area of Qingjian in the south of Hengshan, if it is from the north, it will plunder the countryside, and even attack the city, and the looting will be swept away, anyway, Gao's Zhangwu army will not dare to go out of the city to pursue, even if it chases, it can't catch up.

These local administrations are chaotic, and the border defense does not exist at all, and it is also because Xia Sui and Li Yiyin are in rebellion, vacillating between the Liao State and the Great Zhou, and the first rat is at both ends, but its own strength is still weak, and it does not dare to play self-reliance, and it is still nominally subordinate to the Central Plains Great Zhou, so this border defense situation has been formed.

Rectify military affairs, stabilize border defense, this requires a lot of money, Zhang Yue has no good way for the time being, in Yanchuan County to rest for a day, the county government provided some food, bought some more, made into military dry food, continue to set off, to the northwest of the strike county, by the way to see Luzi Pass.

The distance in a straight line is one hundred and twenty miles, the distance is not far, but there are many mountain roads on the way, and the twists and turns are much farther, and the three hundred people walked for four whole days to reach the county, because they heard some bad conditions in the county on the way, and deliberately waited until the city gate was about to close before they suddenly appeared.

On the one hand, he sent someone to inform the county order, and on the other hand, he led his troops to swagger directly into the city. When they arrived on the streets of the city, the county magistrate Zhang Guangren led the county officials to hurry to the city, and immediately welcomed the group into the city and settled down.