Except for the first two days in the county governor's house, where he listened to everyone's official reports, the rest of the days were spent patrolling around Shangdang.
The time was neither long nor short, and the procedures were not much different from before. First, they met with some high-ranking officials in the county to recognize the people, and then briefly considered their talents. These were all superficial matters, and there is no need to go into details.
In fact, the main thing is to have Pei Shiqing and Zhang Lun as the leaders to discuss Shangdang affairs.
It was similar to what Li Po expected. The situation in Shangdang was not bad, and it was definitely not good. It was half-dead, and it matched the lifeless performance of Shangdang officialdom.
It was the first time that he listened to the government affairs of a county in detail, and it was a place like Shangdang. Li Po quickly discovered what was interesting, or rather boring.
It sounds a bit contradictory, but the thing is like this. Party officials and those whose families are still standing are more or less evading military service and hard labor.
In other words, the law-abiding people have long since disappeared, and the remaining ones are almost all "survivors". According to current parlance, they are all among the desperate.
Just like when Li Yuan stayed in his position in Taiyuan, he recruited fugitives and gathered heroes. Among the fugitives and heroes, almost all of them were fugitives at that time. In other words, their names all appeared on the roster of the Three Expeditions to Liaodong.
, but the person didn’t go.
If the Sui Dynasty was still there, then more than half of the Shangdang officials would appear on the wanted list of the Eastern Capital.
It was interesting because it was the first time that Li Po discovered that there were so many escapees in one county. The boring part is that this phenomenon is not unique to Shangdang. If you check other places, you may not be able to find many.
What is even more frustrating is that the behavior of escaping is not really commendable, because these guys already have more resources than ordinary people, and it is easy to escape from the conscription. They were the most powerful group in the turmoil in the late Sui Dynasty.
Participants.
Thinking about it this way makes people very uncomfortable.
When I arrived at Li Po's place, I even had some jealousy and hatred. I thought back then I knew the result of the conquest of Goguryeo, but in the end I had to go all the way.
It's better for you to hide behind and be complacent and make a lot of troubles. It's really unfair.
But then again, after participating in Daye's eight-year expedition to Liaodong, he has actually discovered that the chances of recruiting veterans who once accompanied the army in the Liaodong expedition are getting less and less. Not all of these people died in
They left Liaodong because most of them failed to return to Jin.
Far away from their homeland, wars continued one after another. Some people died, and there was no difference between living and dead. People who had been walking on the edge of life and death numbly waved their swords and guns, either as officers and soldiers, or as rebels.
Bandits, those who struggle to survive in troubled times and finally stand out, are mostly characters similar to the evil ghosts who escaped from hell.
Once upon a time, the Shangdang soldiers were also a very prominent part of the Jin army, but now, the Shangdang soldiers under Li Po only have two or three kittens, and in order to gain a foothold in the army, most of them consider themselves Daizhou soldiers...
…
Well, Shangdang actually has a big advantage. It is the place where shooters are produced. There are many soldiers in the army. It used to be the most important part of the shooters of the Jin infantry.
It's just that their legs are relatively short, and most of them are not proficient in riding. They are more similar to the soldiers of the Trojan city-state in the ancient Greek period. They are good at bows and arrows, and they will be at a disadvantage if they go head-to-head.
Of course, this would say that these are unnecessary, and Li Po has no intention of recruiting troops in Shangdang territory at this time.
After staying for a few days, Li Po also realized that Pei Shiqing and Zhang Lun were not on good terms. Zhang Lun wanted to let go and suppress the bandits, but Pei Shiqing kept dragging him back with various reasons, which made Zhang Lun very dissatisfied.
Pei Shiqing's reasons were very good. He believed that Shangdang had been plagued by bandits for a long time and was inseparable from the local wealthy families. With internal and external collusion, rashly entering the mountains to suppress the bandits would only result in the loss of troops and generals.
Zhang Lun also had his own opinions. He believed that with the elite soldiers under his command, suppressing the bandits would be overqualified. The bandits would be eliminated naturally, and with him leading the troops, how much effort would it take?
When the time comes, catching a few bandit leaders and showing them to the public will not only serve as a deterrent, but also implicate some people who colluded with the bandits. This will also save you, the Shangdang County Sheriff, a lot of effort, right?
Needless to say, the result of the secret rivalry between the two was that almost all the civil and military officials in the county were on the side of Pei Shiqing. There was no way, no one wanted to let a guy like Zhang Lun wreak havoc in the county. How many people would die? Maybe when would it happen again?
If you can be implicated, will you be able to reason with Zhang Lun, who holds military power? Can it make sense?
The most powerful person supporting Pei Shiqing is undoubtedly Changsun Jingde. The Changsun family, which has been rooted in the Shangdang for a long time, is most afraid of generals like Zhang Lun who are armed with swords and guns. The roots of the Changsun family may not be cut off with one strike.
It's up.
It can be seen that the disadvantages of family relationships are particularly clear in troubled times.
The lawsuit between the two reached Li Po, but they had some restraint and didn't make it too ugly. Anyone who slapped the table and glared in front of Li Po would not get good results.
In this matter, Li Po is undoubtedly more inclined to Zhang Lun. Because he is decisive, he can get results faster. In a place like Shangdang, relying entirely on the bureaucracy to function is not advisable in Li Po's opinion.
But he did not make a decision in a hurry. Now he has developed a habit of thinking carefully about the pros and cons of many things before giving a result.
With more and more civil servants around him, he also likes to listen to other people's opinions. This is almost completely opposite to the character he displayed on the battlefield, and he is very much a sign of schizophrenia.
The person he asked this time was a bit special. In the eyes of others, Fan Wenjin, the prime minister of Changping County, had great fortune. After entering Shangdang County, he was called to the King of Han, serving as his attendants. His advisors answered correctly, and his confidants were very... This is no longer the case.
The question that makes people jealous is not why it is Fan Wenjin.
What kind of virtue and ability does this person have that he can take the lead in front of so many talented people from the Shangdang Party and win the favor alone?
Since ancient times, Shangdang and Changping counties have been mutually exclusive. Those who win Changping must fight for Shangdang;
Marriage is a matter of love, but competition is also the theme of the two counties.
For a time, who Fan Wenjin was, quickly became one of the main topics in the officialdom of Shangdang County, and even surpassed the discussion of His Highness the Han Dynasty's temperament and preferences.
This is actually a rather strange thing. Shangdang officials did not actually welcome the outsider King Han, especially after his hands were stained with the blood of many Shangdang people.
But while they were conservative and stubborn, they had very good adaptability. They were like what people later said: since they couldn't resist, they just lay down and enjoy themselves.
And they were not stupid. They were all deliberately promoting the kindness of His Highness the King of Han. As a result, within a few days, His Highness the King of Han, who had just killed Xiangyuan and was in a mess. In addition to his reputation as an invincible victor in all battles, both inside and outside the county,
He actually gained a great reputation.
Although Fan Wenjin's incident made everyone in the Shangdang very unconvinced, it also served as an example. The officials' pursuit of advancement finally overshadowed the thought of self-preservation for the time being, and more and more people offered suggestions and suggestions.
Li Po felt that Fan Wenjin was a very smart person with a lively mind. It was hard to imagine that he would offend a superior official and be reprimanded... Yes, within a few days, Li Po could see that this man was ambiguous in his speech and behavior.
Without showing off, no matter what you say, he can always answer a few words, always in line with people's wishes, but without the feeling of being overt or flattering.
In other words, this is a very smooth guy, just like Lu Haoran, even though he persuaded him to go to Jinyang Prison, he still praised him highly, which shows his ability.
This man is also not on Li Po's heroic list, but he has an unexpected surprise.
Especially regarding the differences between Zhang Lun and Pei Shiqing, Li Po asked Fan Wenjin a few questions.
This person's answer was very clever, "Bandits are a major problem in the world today. It takes a lot of thought to suppress them. However, the fundamental reason is that the world is in chaos and the people's families cannot survive, so there are many bandits who follow them and they are suppressed repeatedly.
, it is also difficult to pacify them, just like the dispute between Pei County Governor and General Zhang. General Zhang wants to use troops to eliminate him, and he wants to use his power, while County Governor Pei wants to control the place, and he wants to use his power. Each has his own reason..."
"In my humble opinion, Shangdang and Changping are different from other places. It is located in a fortress, the people are martial, the ethnic groups are mixed, and banditry is fierce. It goes without saying that the king wants to cut off its roots. It goes without saying that it took only ten years to achieve this.
It’s impossible to get it, if you just want to suppress its momentum, it will be easy.”
"Mu Qian, the bandit of Baodu Mountain, also known as Murong Qian, is a descendant of Xianbei. His ancestor is the general Murong Yong of the Western Yan Dynasty, and his father is a slave of the eldest grandson. The father and son went into the mountains to escape the conscription, gathered together to escape, and repeatedly invaded Huguan, so they became famous in
The two counties of Shangdang and Changping, and all the villages in Baodu Mountain all look at him with his horse's head."
"On the Yangtou Ridge, there was Wu Tianlai, whose real name was Wu Jiu. He was born in the Wu family in Changping... He entered the mountains and became a bandit. It was also forced by current events. This man gathered refugees in the mountains and opened up fields. He called himself King Shuntian and was highly respected by the mountain people.
"
"These two people don't have many evil deeds to show, and they have family backgrounds. They only need to send one or two capable people to tell them about their arrival and return, and then treat each other well to show their intention to forget the past. The other bandits know that the king of Han is wise, and they will definitely follow the scenery...
…”
Well, the idea is not surprising. Li Po knew almost from the smell that there was something wrong with these two bandit leaders. As expected, it should be the escape route left by the local rich.
Fan Wenjin brought them up now, perhaps because he was entrusted by others, or because he wanted to claim credit in front of him. These are not sure, but one thing is undoubtedly that Fan Wenjin is always inseparable from these two people.
Relevant.
If you think about it, you can actually understand that this person's brother-in-law is a big bandit, so where is the Eighteen Villages in Changping? Why is there much less banditry in Changping than in the Party?
And this idea is ordinary, which makes Li Po a little disappointed. He is a smooth person, and his ideas are not slippery...