Kaiyang City, where Wangcheng is located, is located in the north-central part of Xuzhou, and is also the seat of Linyi County, which is 250 miles away from Xuzhou Zhizhi Xiapi in the south, 150 miles away from Ju County in the north, and 380 miles away from Xiahe City, the seat of Langya County in the northeast of the county. （）

Kaiyang City is the widest and most perfect city that Liu Cun has seen so far, it is surrounded by mountains and rivers, the terrain is superior, the city is not big, the length and width are two miles each, there are majestic and simple dysprosium buildings built on the north and south city gates, the streets in the city are neat, the shops are lined up, the flow of people is like weaving, orderly, the most rare thing is that the people here are rich and poor, the clothes are very decent, you can see the people who are humble and saluting and smiling and talking everywhere on the street, the whole city is antique, quiet and quiet, you can see the shadow of the heyday of the Han Dynasty everywhere.

Due to the slow speed of the carriage that Cheng Bing was riding, it took three days to arrive in Kaiyang City, and if it was one day late, the monarch would have to seal it for the New Year.

Liu Cun's arrival caused the attention of the entire royal city, the monarch Liu Xi met with Liu Cun that night, and praised Liu Cun's heroic appearance and calm humility, and made an exception to invite Liu Cun to drink tea and talk together, enjoy singing and dancing, and a group of ministers around him, long history, master book, engaged in and other adjutants looked at Liu Cun with a smile, like a pet, which made Liu Cun hairy.

Fortunately, the monarch has a gentle personality and a magnificent bearing, and does not care about Liu Cun's unfamiliar etiquette at all, and after kindly asking Liu Cun about his ideas for governing a county, not only did he not blame Liu Cun's governance plan for being full of copper smell, but he was very satisfied.

In the end, the topic turned to Liu Cun's familiar pottery, rather than poetry and songs, which made Liu Cun feel relieved and secretly called luck.

Early the next morning, the shopkeeper of Binshe presented more than 20 local celebrities and invitations to Liu Cun, but it coincided with the end of the year, only three hours from the seal, Liu Cun had to apologize politely, and asked Wang Qi, who was familiar with etiquette and calligraphy, to reply to the letter, and he followed Cheng Bing, who was familiar with the road, to the yamen of the palace.

All the officials have received the exquisite utensils that Liu Cun has paid tribute to, so they are very concerned about Liu Cun, and in only half a day, Liu Cun has completed all the formalities, obtained the seal ribbon issued by the Minister of State, and also obtained a number of permission documents such as the recruitment of county soldiers, the tax exemption of newly opened wasteland for two years, and the requisition of displaced people to repair the ancient port of Langya, Liu Cun and Cheng Bing jointly elected Wang Qi as the county lieutenant of Xiahecheng, and also obtained the approval of the monarch.

Because the county is in an eventful autumn, nearly 100,000 refugees are stranded in various parts of the county, and the yellow turban thieves in Taishan County in the west frequently attack and harass, so that the whole officialdom is very tense, all officials are not allowed to take vacations, Liu Cun, who wanted to browse the scenery of the royal city for a few more days, did not dare to stay more, and bid farewell to the monarch and all the officials early the next morning, and under the farewell of Cheng Bing, the chief bookkeeper Xu Ci and other officials, he rode his horse out of the royal city and rushed back to Xiahe City.

On the New Year's Day of the second year of Zhongping, Liu Cun wore a formal official uniform made out of the hurry, with a copper seal and black ribbon symbolizing the rank of 600 stones, and officially took office as the county magistrate of Langya County, Xuzhou, Xuzhou of the Han Dynasty.

Although Liu Cun practiced etiquette for more than an hour under the guidance of Wang Qi the night before, after the cumbersome ceremony presided over by Ling Shi Zhouchong, Liu Cun still felt very tired, looking at the county Cheng Meng Huan, the county lieutenant Wang Qi, the new chief bookkeeper Guo Tang, Gong Cao Chen Fan, Ling Shi Zhouchong and more than ten colleagues who were familiar or unfamiliar, as well as a group of three elders and prison officials under the hall, I didn't know what to say.

The officials who pay attention to etiquette are helpless against Liu Cun, but Meng Huan, the oldest county with the most qualifications, is not afraid of Liu Cun, this guy who became a grandfather at the age of thirty-five rushed into the back hall angrily, walked to Liu Cun, who took off his official uniform and was lying on a low couch drinking tea, and asked: "Lord Liu, what's the matter with you?" ”

Liu Cun pointed to the cushion on the other side of the low couch: "Old Meng, are you tired?" Yelling at me on the first day of the new year is too much, isn't it? How can I say that I am now your superior, and I don't seem to have offended you before! ”

Meng Huan was stunned, stomped off his cotton shoes, and sat on the couch: "I heard that your Zhushan New Village has salt?" ”

Liu Cun propped himself up and sat cross-legged, lifted the clay pot from the small charcoal stove in front of him, and made a cup of tea for Meng Huan: "You are very well-informed, yes, the salt was released two months ago, otherwise you think that the tens of thousands of grains sent by the Mi family to the city for disaster relief will be given in vain?" ”

Meng Huan was stunned for a moment, and then had to hang his head: "Zijian, you are a genius, I admire you from the bottom of my heart, and I admire your morality and character even more, but now our warehouse is empty, all colleagues and nearly 100 small officials have not distributed rice and grain for half a year, and there are still more than 20,000 dying homeless people in the grass hut outside the city, forcing me to go crazy!" ”

Liu Cun thought about it for a while, but his face was embarrassed: "What can I do?" You also know that in the past six months, I have helped tens of thousands of disaster victims, and now I still owe a lot of rice and grain money to the Mi family, and I still have some miscellaneous grains at home, but the money is gone, what should I do? Or I will ask someone to bring the 20,000 catties of salt in stock, and you will find a way to sell it and pay everyone a salary first? ”

Meng Huan's eyes lit up, and then he was embarrassed again: "It's okay to sell some sea salt in the name of our yamen, but this thing can't be done often, it's against the system!" Have you considered the possible reproaches from Kaiyang Wangcheng? ”

Liu Cun was out of options: "Then what should I do?" Why don't you convert the salt into a salary and distribute it to everyone? ”

Meng Huan was overjoyed: "This is a workaround!" ”

Liu Cunbai glanced at him: "You have to talk to Zhou Lingshi and a few people with supervision responsibilities first, I'm not responsible." ”

Meng Huan's eyes widened again: "You guy is inconsistent on the outside, loyal on the outside, and treacherous on the outside, I don't know what the monarch likes about you." ”

"I'm going to make money!" Liu Cun unceremoniously broke it.

Meng Huan was choked, sighed and shook his head: "Zijian, now that you are the master of all peoples, what are you going to do next?" ”

Liu Cun avoided answering and diverted the topic: "I heard Lord Guo complain with a sad face, saying that the four major local families haven't paid their taxes in the past two years, right?" ”

Meng Huan smiled bitterly: "These big families are all the clansmen of my Han Dynasty Sikong Mansion and Imperial Doctor Shitai, and they didn't say that they didn't pay taxes, they only said that they didn't pay taxes now, and they would postpone paying for some time, knowing that they were bullying, but who of us dared to force them?" ”

Liu Cun smiled angrily: "Lao Meng, Lao Meng, my Liu family caravan does not pay taxes one day late every month, you Lao Meng can chase me to my Chengbei Manor to ask for it, but you dare not offend several major families, why are you so favoritism?" I always thought that you were arrogant and arrogant, a person who was responsible, and I respected you in my heart, but now you are talking to me about these things, you shouldn't be! ”

Meng Huan's face was so red with shame that his whole body tilted to the side weakly, raised his head and looked at the beams above and sighed: "When I become an official, I, Meng Huan, am ashamed!" Alas—"

Liu Cun saw that it was almost over, and he didn't dare to stimulate this old bureaucrat with strong self-esteem anymore, so he pondered for a moment and proposed a solution:

"Lao Meng, you see, if you let the Wang family use the wood and iron materials they operate to offset taxes, will it be okay? In addition to opening shops, doesn't the Gong family also have the largest brick kiln within a radius of 100 miles? There is also the Xu family, who has taken over many industries of the Xu family, operating the most land, the largest quarry and forest farm in the county, we will ask for bricks, tiles, wood and stones, and then organize 20,000 displaced people outside the city, divided into groups of 1,000 people, and let them elect the leaders to come out, repair the city wall, the east and west moats, the official roads around the city and the school field in the north of the city, and exchange labor for food...... As for the food for the coolies, I will think of a way, and it is estimated that I will be cheeky and beg Mr. Mida and the Chen family in Xuzhou again, and I may be able to get some credit, but in the future, the county government will have money, but if I have to be returned to others, I can't be wronged. ”

Meng Huan's spirit was greatly lifted when he heard this: "Zijian has a good idea, it is more than one stone!" At present, the world is chaotic, and the homeless people are congested, thieves are rampant, and the three families of Wang, Gong, and Xu are worried that they can't sell the piles of wood and bricks, and they just use them to offset taxes, even if they are not happy, they dare not refuse, otherwise the homeless people will riot, and what if there is another tragedy in the south of the city? Zijian is so assigned, the victims have something to do and food, they will not rob and steal, or even gather riots, and our territory will be stable, good way, good way! I'll immediately inform my colleagues to get a charter, and I'll do it right away! ”

Liu Cun stopped Meng Huan, who was leaving: "There are two more things, the report of the new village at the foot of Zhushan Mountain being upgraded to Zhushan Township, it is estimated that it will be approved in less than half a month, you do me a favor, Qiangfu, pavilion chief, salt official or something, I will give you a list when I go back, and you don't need to assign a small official there." ”

Meng Huan nodded knowingly and strode away, and Wang Qi, who had been waiting outside for a long time, walked in, took the hot tea handed by Liu Cun, and knelt on the couch to taste it slowly.

Liu Cun asked: "Big brother, you have also read the edict of the imperial court urging all states and counties to form county and county armaments, according to the requirements of the monarch, my Langya County is located at the northern end of the county, in order to ensure the barrier in the north of the county, we are instructed to form at least two soldiers and horses as soon as possible, do you have the bottom in your heart?" ”

Wang Qi nodded: "It's best not to move the three thousand young people carefully selected in our Zhuangzi in the north of the city, it is useful to keep them, or recruit them from the homeless people outside the city, the homeless people who have survived for more than half a year can now be strong and very obedient, and they only need to practice hard for half a year to become elite soldiers, but there are too few people and thousands of people in Liangqu." In addition, yesterday afternoon, I went to the arsenal to carefully inspect and found that the stock of swords, guns, shields and leather armor was enough to equip 5,000 people. ”

Liu Cun came to the spirit: "Good thing! It's better to do this, big brother recruit 2,000 people, make an excuse for more than the customized part, and say that after the practice, we will enrich our caravan guards, try to recruit some who can ride horses, and form an additional horse team, what do you think? ”

Wang Qi scratched his head: "It's best to have a horse team, but where are at least five or six hundred war horses?" ”

"Take salt and Mijia in exchange, in addition, five new-style pottery kilns behind the Chengbei Manor have been built, and around the mountain bag more than three miles away from the north of Huangdao Mountain, there are a large number of fine clay that can burn white pottery, I have sent someone back to let Liu Zhen bring dozens of skilled craftsmen over, and I will definitely be able to make a profit in less than half a month."

"Big brother, think about it, although the world is chaotic now, but the pottery we produce is still in short supply, and the very ordinary King Kong pottery has also entered the palace, and the Zhushan black pottery has completely created a reputation in the entire Han Dynasty, just imagine, how will the Mi family react when they see the white pottery vessels that my Han has never had, which are more exquisite and tougher than black pottery?" Liu Cun said with a smile.

Wang Qi was very excited, his two big hands kept rubbing, and an irrepressible smile appeared on his face.

Liu Cun continued: "I suggest that 2,000 sets of swords, guns, leather armor in the arsenal be left for use, and the rest will be sent to the workshop in Zhushan in the name of repair, especially 50,000 catties of fine iron, and sent to the ironcraft workshop to replace 1,000 improved ring-head knives for use." ”

Wang Qi completely agreed, he had seen Liu Cun's improved village ironware workshop made a new type of ring knife, the knife is three feet five inches long, two inches wide, the blade is thickened and slightly curved, the blade is extremely sharp, it is by no means the kind of waist knife that is easy to break in the hands of the Han officers and soldiers, Wang Qi feels very comfortable in his hand, and he can't put it down after trying the knife, if it weren't for Liu Cun's promise to make a special knife for him after refining good steel, I'm afraid he would have hung it on his waist.

After Wang Qi left, Liu Cun called the thief Cao to inquire, and learned that because the prison guards in the county prison had no food to eat, he was worried that the prisoners would starve to death, so he simply let them all go, and couldn't help laughing happily, making the thief Cao Cao, who was in his fifties, embarrassed.

Liu Cun waved his hand to let him go down, thinking about it and not knowing what to do, so he simply changed into civilian clothes and went to the Chengbei campus to see how Wang Qi selected soldiers.

Seeing this, the two apprentices hurriedly followed Liu Cun, and asked the master all the way if they could follow his uncle Wang Qi to learn to lead the soldiers? was so angry that Liu Cun wanted to kick them off the spot, and the sentence "I want to run away if the road is unstable" immediately made the two sturdy young men shut up in shame.